DATE: Sunday, November 16, 1997             TAG: 9711160051
SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   56 lines

VIOLENT CRIME IN U.S. DROPS 10 PERCENT, REPORT SAYS JUSTICE DEPARTMENT CREDITS DEMOGRAPHICS, YOUTH CRIME PREVENTION, POLICE PROGRAMS

The United States became a safer place to live last year as violent crime against Americans dropped 10 percent below the previous year, the Justice Department reported Saturday.

The most significant drop - 17.6 percent - was seen in rapes and sexual assaults in the National Crime Victimization Survey conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Property crimes also went down by 8.3 percent overall, with the largest fall in motor vehicle theft, 20.1 percent. Personal theft such as purse snatchings and picking pockets dropped 21.1 percent.

``Should we cheer? Quietly, because crime levels remain far too high,'' said James Alan Fox, dean of the College of Criminal Justice at Boston's Northeastern University.

``We're moving in the right direction, but we have a long way to go still before we can claim victory over our crime problem,'' Fox said by telephone. ``We must not get complacent into thinking that our problems are over, or else they will quickly return.''

The rates were the lowest recorded by the statistics bureau since it began taking the survey in 1973. The numbers, which reflect both reported and unreported crimes, paralleled statistics released in the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report.

Among survey findings for last year:

Males were twice as likely than females to be victims of robbery and aggravated assault.

Victims knew the offenders in 48 percent of violent crimes committed or attempted.

Four out of every 10 violent personal crimes were reported to police. Rapes and sexual assaults were the least such reported offenses at 30.7 percent; robberies were reported most often, 53.9 percent of the time.

Three in 10 property crimes were reported to the police, with 76.5 percent of the motor vehicle thefts reported, a higher percentage than any other category.

Female and black victims were more likely to report crimes to authorities than were males and whites.

In recommending a cautious reading of the statistics, Northeastern's Fox noted that some of the largest drops were in the incidence of less-serious crimes such as simple assaults and minor property thefts.

Fox credited several factors for the continued national downward crime trend. Among them: expanded policing efforts within communities, increased use of incarceration, greater efforts in youth crime-prevention programs and a changing illegal drug market, specifically the waning use of crack cocaine.

He said demographics also has played a role. The baby-boomer generation is aging, less able to do the physical activity associated with violent crime, he said. KEYWORDS: STATISTICS CRIME U.S.

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