FBI report to show reversal in falling crime statistics

WASHINGTON -- The number of murders in the United States rose by 3.1 percent last year as police departments nationwide reported an overall increase in major crimes for the first time in a decade, a law enforcement official said.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity about contents of an annual report being released Monday by the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, said the document will reflect more robberies, burglaries and car thefts.

Overall, major crimes were up in 2001 by 2 percent from 2000, the official said Saturday.

Statistics from the report were reported Sunday by The Washington Post, which said it had obtained a copy.

The newspaper said the latest release shows crime reports in suburban areas overall were up 2.2 percent.

Regionally, only the Northeast showed a drop in crime, it said. The largest increase was in the West, followed by the South and Midwest, the newspaper said.

The FBI report excluded the more than 3,000 deaths from the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Citing the report, the Post said had those deaths been counted as homicides, the number of murders would have increased by 26 percent from 2000.

The reversal of nine years of declining crime numbers is certain to generate considerable interest in Congress, as well among the law enforcement community.

Moreover, it comes at a time the FBI is shifting from a focus on traditional crimes in favor of efforts to track down terrorists.

Criminologists have been warning for some time that surges in the numbers of teen-agers and released prisoners, along with recent economic declines, threatened a return to rising crime.