Crime Rate High, but Falling, U.S. Households Survey Shows

WASHINGTON —  A quarter of all U.S. households were touched by crimes involving violence or theft last year, yet this estimate, released Sunday by a Justice Department agency, marks an 11-year low.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics calculated that its 1985 figure was one percentage point under its estimate of the number of households affected by crime in 1984 (26%). Its estimate for 1975, the earliest year for which the measurement is available, was 32%.

The study found that 22.2 million of the nation’s 88.9 million households were the targets of at least one of seven common crimes last year. It estimated that in 1975, 23.4 million of the 73.1 million American households were affected by such criminal activities.

The figures were developed from the latest of several nationwide crime surveys that the bureau conducts every six months. The surveys attempt to measure the incidence of unreported crimes as well as those reported to police.

Crime Victims Queried

Approximately 101,000 crime victims, age 12 or older, from about 49,000 homes were questioned about their experiences with rape, assault, robbery or theft away from home, as well as about burglary or theft from the household and motor vehicle theft. Since only victims were surveyed, homicides were not counted, but the report said that killings were not numerous enough to affect the resulting statistics.

Most of the decrease in crime in 1985 was due to a 6% decline in the estimated number of households hit by personal theft, according to the report.

All other crime categories measured were reported down by fractions of 1%--changes not considered statistically significant, according to Michael R. Rand, author of the report.

The bureau attributed the 11-year downward trend in personal and property crimes partially to population shifts away from cities to suburban and rural areas where crime rates are lower. It also noted that the average number of persons--and the number of potential crime victims--in each home has been declining. (The proportion of large households--six people or more--fell from 7% of the total in 1975 to 4% last year, the report said, and the proportion of urban households dropped from 32% to 29%.)

Other Deterrent Factors

The report did not speculate on other reasons for the downward trend, but Rand suggested that tougher sentencing laws and procedures, together with stepped-up neighborhood crime prevention activities, may have contributed to the drop.

The report classed burglary and the violent crimes of rape, robbery and assault by a stranger as “crimes of high concern,” and said the likeliest targets of such crimes still are the black, low-income and urban households. While the years 1981 to 1984 saw a steady reduction in the proportion of households affected by “high concern” crimes--from 10.5% to 7.7%--the percentage was unchanged in 1985, the report said.