Crime Dropping in Urban Areas

Though the crime rate remains high, actual incidences of violent crime have decreased in urban areas.

"Local governments have been flooded with bad news lately, but one pleasant yet puzzling surprise has been the ongoing drop in the nation's crime rate. The Federal Bureau of Investigation released its 2010 crime statistics, known as the Uniform Crime Report, which showed that despite the tough recession, the number of violent and property crimes committed dropped for the fourth year in a row. Those cities with 1 million or more residents saw violent crime drop 5.1 percent; cities with populations between 500,000 and 1 million experienced a 5.6 percent drop; and those between 250,000 and 499,999 saw the biggest drop in violent crime, 6.9 percent.

Typically crime rises during periods of high unemployment, such as the one we're going through now. So what's going on? Reasons for the contrary trend have crime experts baffled. Michael Maltz, a criminology professor at Ohio State University, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the drop in property crime (2.8 percent nationally) could be attributed to people becoming more security conscious, like keeping doors shut with better locks and putting more sophisticated alarms in their cars."