Fbi Says Robbery At 40-Year Low

The report, released Oct. 17, shows that robberies were down 3.1 percent with 401,326 recorded by law enforcement around the nation in 2004 — the lowest number of robberies since at least 1965. Meanwhile, after three years of going up, burglaries were down 0.5 percent in 2004 for a total of 2.14 million. Overall, robberies are down 30.9 percent and burglaries down 17.4 percent since 1995. Burglaries are usually defined as nonviolent thefts after a property break-in, while robberies involve theft with the intention or use of violence. The FBI says violent crimes overall are down 24 percent during the past 10 years while property crimes have fallen 14.4 percent in that period. Violent crimes include homicides, forcible rape, robberies and assaults while property crimes are defined as burglaries, larceny and car theft. Among all the subcategories of violent and property crimes, the only one showing a rise in 2004 was forcible rape, up 0.8 percent in 2004.