U.S. Murders And Robberies Increase Again

(CBS/AP)  Murders and robberies continued to rise across the country during the first six months of 2006, on pace for an increase in violent crime for a second straight year, preliminary FBI data released Monday show.

The overall 3.7 percent uptick in violent crime between January and June comes amid a still-incomplete Justice Department study of 18 cities for clues on why criminal activity is increasing.

Every region in the country reported sizable increases in violence crime, from 2.9 percent in the Northeast to 4.7 percent in the West, reports CBS News' Stephanie Lambidakis. The crime spike hit small and medium-size cities the hardest, a trend that has many police chiefs calling for more federal aid. The number that stands out the most is for robberies, which jumped almost 10 percent nationally.

Property crimes like auto theft and other larcenies were down by 2.6 percent over the same six-month period, the data show. But the number of arsons shot up by nearly 7 percent, the FBI reported.

The numbers reflect what police across the country have been saying for months: that the lull in crime between 2001 and 2004 appears to be over.

"This is a concern we've been focused on," said Gene Voegtlin, legislative counsel for the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which represents an estimated 20,000 law enforcement officials and has been pushing for more crime-fighting funding. "A lot of (police) agencies are really stretched thin when it comes to the budget and their ability to aggressively combat crime."

"We are encouraged by the drop in property crime seen in most areas around the country, but we are again concerned about the increase in violent crime in some cities and towns," Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said in an e-mailed statement.

However, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told reporters that the numbers were "troubling."

Spokesman Roehrkasse said DOJ has already taken steps to reduce violent crime.

Last month, the department launched what Gonzales called a study "to figure out the whys behind the numbers," but Justice researchers have not yet visited all of the targeted regions, a spokesman said Monday.

The early data show:

Murders rose by 1.4 percent, felony assaults by 1.2 percent and robberies by a whopping 9.7 percent in 2006, compared to the first six months of 2005. The number of rapes decreased by less than one-tenth of 1 percent.

Burglaries increased by 1.2 percent. But car thefts dropped by 2.3 percent and other stealing incidents by 3.8 percent.

Arson rose by 6.8 percent.

The data is based on crime reports from 11,535 police and other law enforcement agencies nationwide. The total number of actual crimes reported was not immediately available.

[hermit22]

Easy test: Take all the violence and crime and filth off t.v, videos, music etc.for ten years,

send the kids back to Sunday School every week to fidget around and learn a little something helpful, then compare the crime rates to the previous decade.

[antoniof123]

I am so tired of people trying to blame things on something else. Oh the TV violence made me do it or the video game or some thing else. Please stop making excuses for yourselves. I do not get up in the morning and say hey I am going to kill someone or hey I want to rob a store. Do you know why it is because I made a choice to be someone that is trying to be a good person inside. I do not need you to tell me how to live I do not need you to make laws to tell my wife or daughters if that they must have children because we raised them right. So please save your analysis and excuses for the rest of the crowd who is fooled by this. I am just not buying anymore of this garbage from fools.

[drew30319-2009]

This information is as lamentable as it is predictable. From birth we learn that personal accountability is more of an obstacle than it is a tenet to live by.

After the murder of my teenage daughter by a fellow teenager (and ex-boyfriend) ten months ago I did some research about the factors involved in "raising a killer." I found an interesting essay from 1999 by Marvin Gardner.

Below is what I took to be the primary message as well as a link to the full text. I've always believed more in nurture v. nature but had never before sought validation.

= = = = = = = = = =

1. Indulgent parents create self-indulgent children, who grow up to be self-indulgent adults.

2. Self-indulgent parents create delinquent children, who grow up to be delinquent adults.

3. Delinquent parents create alienated children, who grow up to be alienated adults.

4. Alienated parents create sociopathic children, who grow up to be killers.

http://www.bigskytel.com/%7Emarvingardner/soshpath.html

= = = = = = = = = =
Parents - don't underestimate the damage that you inflict not only on your children but society in general.

Personally I find the "treatise" to be a bit alarmist in nature but find value in much of what the author has to say. See what you think.

Drew Crecente
Director, Jennifer Ann's Group
www.JenniferAnn.org

[olgreyghost]

Everybody can calm down just a little as there is no real jump in violent crime beyond the headlines. If you study these things over the years, you will see that we had a slight reduction before this increase. If this peak is compared to the previous peak, there is not much difference. It's the same as some unscrupulous retailers who raise the price on something and then put in "On Sale" for the lower price it used to be...

[shroomer_dav]

all good posts!humans are doomed.in 50 years people will have to grow and protect their own food. you think it's bad now?

[adian1-2009]

There are no easy answers to our crime problem. I have no seen a real serious study about why there are so many violent crimes in this country. There are opinions expressed everywhere by a lot of people, especially politicians. But the only thing done is following the punishment theory. We are the biggest excecutioners of killers in the whole Western Civilization Countries. And yet we have the highest number of violent crimes. The death penalty embraced by politicians, members of the judiciary, and for our disgrace, the majority of the people, is not a deterrent. Then, why do we not change course in dealing with crime and punishment? What we have is not working. Sounds familiar? Let us try to fix here first.

[ceres5]

No surprise. Greedy corporate America is making tens of billions in profits. Salaries for countless executives went sky high, in the millions of dollars. Insurance companies are sucking the blood of millions of people in the form of astronomical homeowner's insurance, health insurance, etc. On the other hand, the middle class is being pushed into poverty and more crime. Who are responsible for all the U.S. problems? The usual scapegoats: the illegal aliens. What some patriots will conclude: Crimminal illegal aliens are destroying the land of the brave.

[kevboom]

It's Clinton's fault. ha ha Just kidding--thought I would say it before some Republican threw in their "spin." Smile!

[Syndicate]

There are proportionaly more christians in jail than atheist. So that kinda blows the higher power argument. As some one has said atheist put more effort into arriving at thier beleifs.

[jimibear]

Very true, Gaye. I think it was Karl Marx who said that religion was the opiate of the people, meaning that if you could get "God on your side" people would let you get away with anything. TV is much more insidious; it gets right into peoples' houses, for 6 hours or more a day ON AVERAGE, and has no real agenda but to sell them things. And like drugs and porn, people become aclimatized, and need a bigger fix of glitz, violence or whatever their visual "drug of choice" may be, to get off.

We have become inundated with stupidity and greed through the box in our living room. We are in a position where the parents are now products of the TV generation, and it shows in the way they fail to raise their children.