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Crime in Washington, D.C. (formally known as the District of Columbia), is directly related to the city's changing demographics, geography, and unique criminal justice system. The District's population reached a peak of 802,178 in 1950. However, shortly thereafter, the city began losing residents and by 1980 Washington had lost one-quarter of its population. The population loss to the suburbs also created a new demographic pattern, which divided affluent neighborhoods west of Rock Creek Park from more crime-ridden and blighted areas to the east. Despite being the headquarters of multiple federal law enforcement agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the nationwide crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s greatly affected the city and led to large increases in crime.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=DEA History Book, 1985 - 1990 )〕 The number of homicides in Washington peaked in 1991 at 479,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=District Crime Data at a Glance )〕 and the city eventually became known as the "murder capital" of the United States. The crime rate started to fall in the mid-1990s as the crack epidemic gave way to economic revitalization projects. Gentrification efforts have also started to transform the demographics of distressed neighborhoods, recently leading to the first rise in the District's population in 60 years. By the mid-2000s, crime rates in Washington dropped to their lowest levels in over 20 years. As in many major cities, crime remains a significant factor in D.C., especially in the city's northwestern neighborhoods, which tend to be more affluent, draw more tourists, and have more vibrant nightlife.〔 Violent crime also remains a problem in Ward 8, which has the city's highest concentration of poverty. ==Statistics== According to Uniform Crime Report statistics compiled by the FBI, there were 1,330.2 violent crimes per 100,000 people reported in the District of Columbia in 2010. There were also 4,778.9 property crimes per 100,000 reported during the same period. The average violent crime rate in the District of Columbia from 1960 through 1999 was 1,722 violent crimes per 100,000 population,〔Joanne Savage, "Interpreting 'Percent Black:' An Analysis of Race and Violent Crime in Washington, DC", ''Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice'' Volume:4 Issue:1/2 (2006), 29–63.〕 and violent crime has decreased significantly since after peaking in the mid 1990s, by 50% in the 1995–2010 period (with property crime has decreasing by 49.8% during the same period). However, violent crime is still more than three times the national average of 403.6 reported offenses per 100,000 people in 2010. In the early 1990s, Washington, D.C., was known as the "murder capital", experiencing 474 homicides in 1990.〔 The elevated crime levels were associated with the introduction of crack cocaine during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The crack was brought into Washington, D.C. by Colombian cartels and sold in drug markets such as "The Strip" (the largest in the city) located a few blocks north of the United States Capitol. A quarter of juveniles with criminal charges in 1988 tested positive for drugs.〔 The number of homicides per year in Washington, D.C., peaked at 479 in 1991,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=D.C. homicides drop by half in last decade )〕 followed by a downward trend in the late 1990s. In 2000, 242 homicides occurred, and the downward trend continued in the 2000s. In 2012, Washington, D.C. had only 92 homicides in 91 separate incidents, the lowest annual tally since 1963.〔Homicide Watch D.C., "92," (), January 1, 2013〕 The Metropolitan Police Department's official tally is 88 homicides, but that number does not include four deaths that were ruled self-defense or justifiable homicide by citizen.〔 The cause of death listed on the four case records is homicide and MPD includes those cases in tallying homicide case closures at the end of the year.〔 As Washington neighborhoods undergo gentrification, crime has been displaced further east. Crime in neighboring Prince George's County, Maryland, initially experienced an increase, but has recently witnessed steep declines as poorer residents moved out of the city into the nearby suburbs. Crime has declined both in the District and the suburbs in recent years. In fact, the influx of more affluent new residents in the city has not led to an uptick in robberies or property crimes in gentrifying areas, including Columbia Heights, Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant, Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, and Shaw. There was an average of 11 robberies each day across the District of Columbia in 2006, which is far below the levels experienced in the 1990s.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Citywide Crime Statistics Annual Totals, 1993-2005 )〕 In 2008, 42 crimes in the District were characterized as hate crimes; over 70% of the reports classified as hate crimes were a result of a bias against the victim's perceived sexual orientation. Those findings continue the trend from previous years, although the total number of hate crimes is down from 57 in 2006, and 48 in 2005. By 2012, the number of hate crimes reported were 81, and dropped to 70 in 2013. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Crime in Washington, D.C.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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