Violent crimes mostly down

By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

The number of murders dropped by nearly 6 percent in cities across the country during the first half of 2004, but was up in Honolulu, according to a report released yesterday by the FBI.

There were 13 murders from January to June this year in Ho-nolulu, compared with eight in the same period last year, according to the report.

Murders aside, overall violent crime in Honolulu was down about 15 percent during the first six months of this year compared with last year, the FBI report shows.

That compares with a nationwide downturn of about 2 percent for violent crimes reported to the FBI by more than 10,700 state and local police agencies providing crime statistics to the FBI during the first six months of 2004.

The violent crime category includes murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

In Honolulu, the number of reported rapes declined 11 percent while robberies were down a whopping 45 percent, during the first six months this year, according to the FBI's figures. The number of aggravated assaults rose, however, from 629 in 2003 to 697 from January through June this year, an increase of about 11 percent.

Nationwide, the number of murders dropped 5.7 percent, followed by robbery (5 percent) and aggravated assault (1 percent). Rapes increased 1.4 percent nationwide, though the increase was greater — 6.5 percent — in cities with populations of 1 million or more, according to the FBI.

The national crime rate has dropped to record lows in recent years but the number of homicides has been rising steadily. After reaching a low point in 1999 of about 15,500 homicides, the number crept up to more than 16,500 in 2003, or almost six murders for every 100,000 U.S. residents.

That was a 1.7 percent increase from 2002 and a jump of more than 6 percent since 1999. Still, the latest nationwide figure was 29 percent lower than the homicides in 1994.

The preliminary nationwide figures show a 1.9 percent decline in the property crimes of burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft during the first six months of 2004, compared with a 9 percent decline in Hawai'i.

The property crime decline on O'ahu comes at a time when residents are concerned that crystal methamphetamine is causing a spike in property crimes.

Burglaries on O'ahu declined about 7 percent during the first six months of this year, while thefts were down about 11 percent and car thefts declined 5 percent, according to the figures used in the FBI report. The final report for all of 2004 will be released next fall.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-7014.