Strong economy drives violent crime in America to lowest level for 30 years

The murder rate in America rose last year while other violent crime fell to the lowest levels in almost three decades.

The murder rate in America rose last year while other violent crime fell to the lowest levels in almost three decades.

The fall in the number of assaults has been attributed to a stronger economy. Statistics from the latest National Crime Victimisation Survey suggest the number of reported violent crimes fell by 9 per cent, marking the lowest level since 1973. The report is based on interviews with victims of violent crime and, consequently, does not include murders.

Ralph Myers, a criminologist at Stanford University, said the decrease in violent crime was the result of the strong economy of the 1990s combined with tougher sentencing laws. Since 1993, the violent crime rate has decreased by 50 per cent.

"Despite our perceptions, it is clear crime is on the decline in a significant way and has been for some years. When people have jobs and poor neighbourhoods improve, crime goes down," he said. "Crime levels have also been impacted by the implementation of tough sentencing laws at the end of the 1980s."

Bruce Fenmore, a criminal statistician at the Institute for Crime and Punishment, a think-tank in Chicago, said the effect of tougher sentencing laws was highlighted by the drop in the rate at which people in the United States were assaulted.

He said: "There is overwhelming evidence that people who commit assaults do it as a general course of their affairs. Putting those people behind bars drops the rate."

The report suggests a 10 per cent decrease in the violent crime rate for whites. It also included an 11.6 per cent decline for blacks against a 3.9 per cent increase for Hispanics.

The survey also identified that the greatest drop in violent crime rates (19.7 per cent) was in the American Midwest. The decline was felt in urban, suburban and rural areas alike. The rate of violence experienced by suburban residents fell by 14 per cent.

In urban and rural areas, the rate fell by 5.4 per cent and 10.6 per cent, respectively. While the figures suggest a drop in most forms of violent crime, preliminary figures from an FBI report suggest murders increased by 3.1 per cent across the country last year.

New York has long been identified as the city that has turned around its crimes statistics the most effectively. This has largely been credited to the direction of the former mayor Rudolph Giuliani and his now famous policy of zero tolerance. Excluding those killed in the terrorist attacks on September 11, the city recorded 641 murders in 2001.

While some commentators argue this remains a disturbingly high number, it is a 70 per cent drop from the city's record number of 2,262 murders recorded in 1990. The turn-around in crime has been enough to lead Ken Livingstone, London's Mayor, to declare that he feels safer in New York than in the British capital. "I feel safe in London, but not as safe as I did when I went to New York," he said last week.

"They have had eight years of a real bearing down on crime and eight years of zero-tolerance policing which has cut crime. Clearly the murder rate is different in New York because of the gun laws. But in terms of a reduction in street crime we have quite a way to go."