Thursday, 4:30 PM
Violent crime drops in 3 Mass. cities, rises in others
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Correspondent
Violent crime dropped in three of Massachusetts' largest cites outside Boston in the first six months of 2006 despite an uptick in murders and robberies across the United States, according to data released today by the FBI.
Cambridge saw its violent crime rate drop by more than 17 percent, according to the data. Violent crime in Springfield tumbled by 7 percent, and Lowell had a 6 percent drop.
In Boston, however, violent crime rose by 11 percent, and in Worcester it edged upward by almost 2 percent.
The data was from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, which are statistics collected from 11,535 police and other law enforcement across the country. Nationwide researchers found that from January through June murders and robberies rose, with an overall increase of 3.7 percent from the first six months of 2005.
In additional to a national overview, the report also detailed finding for all cities with populations of 100,000 or more. The crimes examined in the report include murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft.
Cambridge saw crime fall in seven categories except murders, which rose from one in the first half of 2005 to two in the same period in 2006. Reported rapes dropped to four from 10, robberies fell to 91 from 115; and aggravated assaults went down to 85 from 95 in the first half of 2005.
While Boston experienced a drop in reported rapes, burglaries, and motor vehicle thefts in the first half of 2006, the number of murders rose by 27 percent and aggravated assaults jumped by 13 percent.
As of today, Boston has had 71 homicides as compared to 73 at this time last year, when the city hit a 10-year-high.
There was some good crime news, however, for car owners. All five Massachusetts cities with populations over 100,000 saw a drop in motor vehicle thefts, including Lowell where the number fell by 23 percent.
Boston had 10 percent fewer car thefts in the first half of 2006, with the number dropping to 1,907 from 2,127 in 2005. Over the last six years, the number of auto thefts in the city has plummeted by more than 40 percent, a drop police attribute largely to high-tech security systems in new cars that deter would-be thieves.
Nationwide car thefts dropped by 2.3 percent in the first six months of 2006.
