FBI FINDS NUMBER OF CRIMES UP FOR FIRST TIME IN A DECADE

WASHINGTON - Murder, rape and every other violent criminal act except
aggravated assault rose last year, the FBI said Monday in reporting
the first year-to-year increase in overall crime in a decade.

The number of murders increased for the second straight year,
following several years of decline, according to the FBI, which
compiles its annual survey from crimes reported by 17,000 law
enforcement agencies nationwide.

The 15,980 murders represented a 2.5 percent increase over 2000, while
forcible rapes were up less than 1 percent and robberies rose 3.7
percent. Aggravated assaults fell by a half-percentage point, reaching
its lowest level since 1987.

The FBI did not include the Sept. 11 deaths at the World Trade Center,
the Pentagon and the plane crash in Pennsylvania. These deaths, the
FBI said, "are different from the day-to-day crimes committed in this
country."

The report listed the total number of Sept. 11 murder victims reported
by law enforcement agencies as 3,047. Of those, 2,823 occurred at the
World Trade Center, 184 at the Pentagon and 40 in Somerset County,
Pa., the FBI reported.

The total number of crimes rose 2.1 percent last year, the first
increase from year to year since 1991, the FBI said. But overall crime
still is down 10 percent compared with 1997, according to the report.

Property crimes such as burglary, larceny and arson, with no threat of
violence, rose 2.3 percent, to 10.4 million cases. The total value of
stolen property was pegged at $17.1 billion, with motor vehicles and
jewelry accounting for the most money. About a third of stolen
property was recovered.

The FBI report differs from a survey done earlier this year by the
Justice Department, which identified a drop in all violent crimes
except murder in 2001, based on interviews with victims. Murder is not
included in that survey, and the FBI cautions against comparing the
two reports.

Despite the increase in murders, the FBI said the overall number still
is down nearly 33 percent from 1992. Murder accounts for only about
1.1 percent of the nation's violent crime, with aggravated assault
making up about two-thirds of the cases and robbery another 29 percent.

There were 6,750 white murder victims, 6,446 who were black, with the
remainder a mix of other or unknown races. Men were far more likely
than women to be murdered.

Firearms accounted for 8,719 slayings, or about two-thirds, followed
by knives, "personal" weapons such as fists and feet, blunt objects
and such methods as drugs, strangulation and drowning. There were 10
murders-by-poison in the United States last year, according to the
FBI.

Police were able to make arrests in about 20 percent of all cases.
They did better with violent crimes, solving 46 percent, including
two-thirds of all murders. Burglaries remain the toughest cases to
crack, with just 13 percent of offenses resulting in arrests.

There were more than 2.3 million arrests for crimes tracked by the FBI
in 2001, down less than 1 percent from the year before.