The nation's estimated rate of both violent and property crime shot up last year after several years of decline, says the Justice Department's National Crime Victimization Survey.
The survey reported a 17-percent increase in the violent crime rate and an 11-percent increase in the property crime rate in 2011 compared with 2010.
The crime victimization survey is based on interviews with a representative sample of U.S. households on whether their members 12 or older were victimized in the previous year. Nearly 80,000 households and more than 143,000 individuals were interviewed.
In terms of estimated crime-incident totals rather than rates per 1,000 population, there were about 5.8 million violent victimizations last year around the nation compared with about 4.9 million in 2010, the survey found.
The increase in property crime was driven partly by a rise in estimated household burglaries, which the survey said increased 14 percent.
Other survey findings:
- Domestic violence victimizations increased slightly last year.
- Most of the increase in violent victimizations were reported by whites, Hispanics, young people, and men. The rates for black non-Hispanics was stable.
- Residents of urban areas had the highest rates of total violent victimization, 27.4 per 1,000 population, while residents of suburban areas reported an increase from 16.8 incidents per 1,000 in 2011 to 20.2 per 1,000 in 2010.
Read the full report HERE.
