Still Safer

And the trend that has been happening for most of the last fifteen years has continued. Crime rates dropped again last year:

Nationwide, murder and manslaughter dropped 4.4 percent in 2008. Aggravated assault declined 3.2 percent, forcible rape decreased 2.2 percent, and robbery dropped 1.1 percent. The country also saw a huge drop in car thefts -- more than 13 percent.

2005 and 2006 saw small increases in the crime rate. That was up from historic lows though, now that it has dropped for two more years we are still quite clearly at the lowest crime rates in the past forty years.