Violent Crime Is Up

The FBI confirms that violent crime is up:

Statistics released today in the FBI’s Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report revealed overall declines in the number of property crimes reported and overall increases in the number of violent crimes reported for the first six months of 2015 when compared with figures for the first six months of 2014. The report is based on information from 12,879 law enforcement agencies that submitted three to six months of comparable data to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for the first six months of 2014 and 2015.

Violent Crime

• All of the offenses in the violent crime category—murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape (revised definition), rape (legacy definition), aggravated assault, and robbery—showed increases when data from the first six months of 2015 were compared with data from the first six months of 2014. The number of rapes (legacy definition) increased 9.6 percent, the number of murders increased 6.2 percent, aggravated assaults increased 2.3 percent, the number of rapes (revised definition) rose 1.1 percent, and robbery offenses were up 0.3 percent.
• Violent crime increased in all but two city groupings. In cities with populations from 50,000 to 99,999 inhabitants, violent crime was down 0.3 percent, and in cities with 500,000 to 999,999 in population, violent crime decreased 0.1 percent. The largest increase in violent crime, 5.3 percent, was noted in cities with 250,000 to 499,999 in population.
• Violent crime decreased 3.3 percent in non-metropolitan counties but rose slightly, 0.1 percent, in metropolitan counties.
• Violent crime increased in all but one of the nation’s four regions. These crimes were down 3.2 percent in the Northeast but increased 5.6 percent in the West, followed by rises of 1.6 percent in the South and 1.4 percent in the Midwest.

Pew reports (h/t LG): [emphasis added]

Strengthening the nation’s economy (75%) and defending the country from future terrorist attacks (75%) stand at the top of the public’s priority list for the president and Congress in 2016.

A tier below these top issues, about two-thirds call improving the educational system (66%) and improving the job situation (64%) top priorities for the country.

The public now ranks reducing the budget deficit (56% top priority) toward the middle of its list, alongside issues such as reducing crime (58%) and dealing with the problems of poor and needy people (54%).

Fewer than half say reforming the criminal justice system should be a top priority (44%). Even fewer cite dealing with global climate change (38%) or dealing with gun policy (37%) as top priorities for the country.