THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 3, 1997 TAG: 9701030482
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 82 lines
Major cities across the nation experienced sharply fewer homicides in 1996, hitting 30-year lows in some cases and continuing an overall drop in violent crime that began five years ago.
Each of the nation's 10 largest cities and many smaller ones showed decreases in the numbers of slayings this year compared with 1995, according to a survey of police departments.
But in South Hampton Roads, Portsmouth was the only city that followed the national trend. Last year, 12 fewer people were murdered in Portsmouth than in 1995. There were 23 murders last year, down from 35 in 1995. Portsmouth's all-time high was 37, in 1992.
Murders rose in other South Hampton Roads cities.
In Norfolk, there were 62 murders last year, up from 52 in 1995.
In Virginia Beach, there were 22 murders last year, up from 16 in 1995.
In Chesapeake, there were 14 murders last year, up from 10 in 1995.
In Suffolk, there were five murders last year, up from 4 in 1995.
The District of Columbia was among the few prominent exceptions to the overall decline, with the number of homicides in the nation's capital up nearly 10 percent over last year.
New York City finished the year with fewer than 1,000 homicides for the first time since 1968. With the exceptions of Chicago and Philadelphia, which registered more-modest declines, all of the nation's 10 largest cities saw the number of homicides drop by at least 15 percent over the previous year.
These statistics mark some of the sharpest and most widespread decreases in urban murders recorded in recent years. Big cities have a substantial impact on the nation's homicide rate, so government experts and academic researchers expect that complete crime reports for 1996 will show an exceptional overall decline in murders.
No one cause explains the decline. Criminologists and government experts cite factors ranging from demographic changes to new policing tactics and greater resources available to law enforcement.
The aging of the overall population has meant that the number of people in the most violence-prone age groups - the teens and twenties - has declined in recent years. In addition, the illicit drug trade has become notably less violent than it was when crack cocaine first became a major street drug in the mid-1980s.
``An awful lot of the growth in homicides was associated with drug markets,'' said Alfred Blumstein, a criminologist at Carnegie Mellon University. ``These markets started with violence as a dominant feature. After a while, a lot of drug dealers have found other means of dispute resolution and either explicitly or implicitly acknowledged each other's turf. We saw the same sort of process with the Mafia.''
Gang violence has declined in many cities, in part because of the activities of community gang intervention organizations and police programs that target street gangs - especially efforts aimed at enforcement of gun violations.
In addition, police departments have increased the number of officers on the streets. The Los Angeles Police Department has grown by more than 12 percent in the past four years to a force of 9,250 sworn officers, and with increased resources have come new strategies. Community policing has put officers in closer contact with ordinary citizens and in a better position to prevent violent crime.
Still, criminologists note that the reasons behind the drop in homicides are open to interpretation and that no one can say for certain what is driving the trend.
``The general downward pattern in big city homicide is good news for the whole country because so much of our lethal violence is concentrated in the cities,'' said Franklin E. Zimring, director of the Earl Warren Legal Institute at the University of California at Berkeley.
Police say homicides have decreased because they have become more effective in preventing crime. ``Now, with so many fewer violent crimes to run down, we can focus on a lot of other priorities like gang activities, narcotics trafficking and prostitution,'' said Lt. Anthony Alba, a spokesman for the Los Angeles police. MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Washington Post and
staff writer Naomi Aoki. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic/The Virginian-Pilot
Murders in Hampton Roads 1980-1996
[For complete copy, see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: MURDER RATE CRIME HAMPTON ROADS CRIME RATE