2004 Crime Stats: Rape Up, Murder Down

From MSNBC.com: Washington (AP)-- "Murders across the United States fell for the first time in five years, while rapes increased slightly last year, the FBI reported Monday.  Overall, the number of violent crimes, which also include aggravated assaults and robberies, fell by 1.2 percent last year...

There were 16,137 murders in the United States in 2004, the last full year for which statistics are available. That was about 350 fewer than in 2003...Chicago was largely responsible for the drop, recording 150 fewer murders in 2004 than in 2003.  The number of rapes, however, has increased in three of the past four years, according to the FBI data." More Stats... [Mark Godsey]