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Crime in the United States has been recorded since colonization. Crime rates have varied over time, with a sharp rise after 1963, reaching a broad peak between the 1970s and early 1990s. Since then, crime has declined significantly in the United States, and current crime rates are approximately the same as those of the 1960s.〔 Statistics on specific crimes are indexed in the annual Uniform Crime Reports by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and by annual National Crime Victimization Surveys by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. In addition to the primary Uniform Crime Report known as ''Crime in the United States'', the FBI publishes annual reports on the status of law enforcement in the United States.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Uniform Crime Reports )〕 The report's definitions of specific crimes are considered standard by many American law enforcement agencies. According to the FBI, index crime in the United States includes violent crime and property crime.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Uniform Crime Reports Data Tool )〕 Violent crime consists of four criminal offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault; property crime consists of burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson.〔 ==Crime over time== In the long term, violent crime in the United States has been in decline since colonial times. However, during the early 20th century, crime rates in the United States were higher compared to parts of Western Europe. For example, 198 homicides were recorded in the American city of Chicago in 1916, a city of slightly over 2 million at the time. This level of crime was not exceptional when compared to other American cities such as New York, but was much higher relative to European cities, such as London, which then had three times the population but recorded only 45 homicides in the same year. After World War II, crime rates increased in the United States, peaking from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Violent crime nearly quadrupled between 1960 and its peak in 1991. Property crime more than doubled over the same period. Since the 1990s, however, crime in the United States has declined steeply. Several theories have been proposed to explain this decline: # The number of police officers increased considerably in the 1990s. # On September 16, 1994, President Bill Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act into law. Under the act, over $30 billion in federal aid was spent over a six-year period to improve state and local law enforcement, prisons and crime prevention programs.〔(/Effect+of+the+Violent+Crime+Control+and+Law+Enforcement+Act+of+1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 )〕 Proponents of the law, including the President, touted it as a lead contributor to the sharp drop in crime which occurred throughout the 1990s,〔 while critics have dismissed it as an unprecedented federal boondoggle.〔 # The prison population has expanded since the mid-1970s.〔 # Starting in the mid-1980s, the crack cocaine market grew rapidly before declining again a decade later. Some authors have pointed towards the link between violent crimes and crack use.〔 # One hypothesis suggests a causal link between legalized abortion and the drop in crime during the 1990s. # Changing demographics of an aging population has been cited for the drop in overall crime. # Another hypothesis suggests reduced lead exposure as the cause; Scholar Mark A.R. Kleiman writes: "Given the decrease in lead exposure among children since the 1980s and the estimated effects of lead on crime, reduced lead exposure could easily explain a very large proportion—certainly more than half—of the crime decrease of the 1994-2004 period. A careful statistical study relating local changes in lead exposure to local crime rates estimates the fraction of the crime decline due to lead reduction as greater than 90 percent.〔When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment, Princeton University Press 2009 page 133 citing Richard Nevin, "How Lead Exposure Relates to Temoral Changes in IQ, Violent Crime and Unwed Pregnancy," Environmental Research 83, 1 (2000): 1-22.〕 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 the United States」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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