WASHINGTON — The number of violent crimes reported to police decreased 3.8 percent last year to 1.2 million, the fifth straight year of declines, the FBI announced Monday.
Meanwhile, the total number of property crime reported to law enforcement agencies went down by 0.5 percent to 9 million, the ninth consecutive year that figure has fallen. Property crimes resulted in estimated losses of $156.6 billion.
The South accounted for 41.3 percent of violent crime, while the West had 22.9 percent of it. The Midwest claimed 19.5 percent of the cases and the Northeast, 16.2 percent.
In 2011, authorities solved nearly 64 percent of murders, more than 40 percent of forcible rapes, nearly 29 percent of robberies and nearly 57 percent of aggravated assaults.
The FBI said firearms were used in two-thirds of the nation’s murders last year, and in two out of every five robberies and in one out of five aggravated assaults.
The FBI’s crime reporting program is one of two statistical measures of crime levels issued by the Justice Department. The FBI program captures crimes that are reported to police. Historically, less than half of all crimes, including violent crimes, are reported to police. The other measure, the national crime victimization survey, is designed to capture crime data regardless of whether it is reported to police. That survey is based on interviews of crime victims.