Crime Rate Is Steady at 30-Year Low, Robberies and Assaults Have Declined 55% in Past Decade
by CURT ANDERSON Associated Press, the Washington Post, September 13, 2004, p. A12

    The nation's crime rate last year held steady at the lowest levels since the government began surveying crime victims in 1973, the Justice Department reported yesterday.
    The study was the latest contribution to a decade-long trend in which violent crime as measured by victim surveys has fallen by 55 percent and property crime by 49 percent. That has included a 14 percent drop in violent crime from 2000-01 to 2002-03....         © 2004 The Washington Post Company

"Violent crime" is defined by the FBI as murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.