U.S. CRIME RATE IN 1997 HITS LOWEST LEVEL SINCE 1974

WASHINGTON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. crime rate kept falling in 1997,
hitting the lowest level in 23 years as police reported fewer murders and
robberies, the FBI said on Sunday.

The FBI said in a 420-page report detailing final U.S. crime statistics for
1997 that there were nearly 13.2 million serious offences last year, marking
the sixth straight year the number of crimes has gone down.

The overall crime rate of 4,923 offences for every 100,000 U.S. residents
decreased 3 percent from the 1996 rate and 13 percent from a decade ago. It
represented the lowest level since 1974.

Murders and robberies showed the steepest declines, each falling 7 percent
in 1997 from 1996.

For other crimes, assaults edged down by 1 percent, rapes were slightly
lower, motor vehicle theft dropped by 3 percent while burglaries, larcenies
and thefts decreased 2 percent.

But even with the decreases, the FBI said there was a burglary in the United
States every 13 seconds, a robbery every minute, a rape every five minutes
and a murder every half hour.

The report said the police were best at solving murders, finding the killer
in two out of every three cases. The police solved about half of all violent
crimes, but were able to solve only 14 percent of the burglaries and car
thefts.

The numbers illustrated how crime in the United States has fallen throughout
the 1990s after skyrocketing in the 1980s, reflecting a wave of drug and
inner-city violence.

The report gave no reasons for the downward trend, but experts have cited a
number of factors, including the ageing of the baby-boom generation past
their prime years for committing crimes and the passing of the crack cocaine
epidemic.

Other factors include the burgeoning U.S. prison population, stricter
gun-control laws, improved economic conditions, better policing policies and
more cops on the street.

President Bill Clinton, on a trip in Asia, said in a statement the murder
rate has reached the lowest level in three decades. "But in far too many
communities, crime remains a serious problem and our work is far from done,"
he added.

U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno hailed the numbers, but warned against
complacency. "These decreases are real and go beyond a statistical blip. But
we have not won the war on crime. We cannot let up," she said.

Reno said efforts must go forward against those who illegally possess, use
or sell guns, against domestic violence, against drugs and against juvenile
crime.

In a special section of the report, the FBI said juvenile female arrests
have increased at a faster rate since 1987 than for juvenile males.

Violent crimes by young girls tend to be less violent in terms of the weapon
used and the severity of the injury when compared with crimes by juvenile
males, the FBI said.

The report also found that juvenile murder arrests in 1997 dropped 16
percent from the previous year while all juvenile arrests for violent crimes
fell by 4 percent.

In another section, the report said there were more than 9,860 hate crimes
last year, with nearly 5,900 motivated by racial bias, nearly 1,500
motivated by religious bias, 1,375 by sexual-orientation bias and more than
1,080 by ethnic bias.

The report also said 65 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of
duty last year -- an increase of nine officers from 1996.

All but three of the officers were killed by firearms, the FBI said, adding
that 25 of the officers had been wearing body armour when killed. All the
killings have been solved except in one case, where a suspect remains at
large.

Checked-by: Don Beck