Victims of Crime - A General Downturn In Crime

Despite the continuing media spotlight on the high crime rate in the nation's cities, the findings from the 1996 NCVS indicated that overall crime victimization had declined from its peak in 1981. These findings support the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, published in Crime in the United States.

Continuing the decline from 1997 to 1998, the rates of violent crime, personal theft, and property crime fell 6.6 percent, 18.8 percent, and 12.4 percent, respectively. Overall from 1993 to 1998 the violent victimization rate dropped 26.7 percent, the personal theft rate plummeted by 43.5 percent, and the property crime rate fell 31.8 percent. From 1998 to 2000 rates of criminal victimization (personal crimes) declined by 23.2 percent, while the overall rate for victims of property crimes dropped by 18.1 percent. (See Table 3.1.)