Violent crime rate remained unchanged while theft rate declined in 2008
The violent crime rate in 2008 — 19.3 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older — was unchanged from the previous year, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, announced. The property crime rate declined during 2008 from 147 to 135 crimes per 1,000 households, primarily as a result of decreases in theft and motor vehicle theft.
In 2008, an estimated 4.9 million violent crimes (rapes or sexual assaults, robberies, aggravated assaults and simple assaults) occurred, as well as an estimated 16.3 million property crimes (burglaries, motor vehicle thefts and household thefts) and 137,000 personal thefts (picked pockets and snatched purses). These offenses included both crimes reported and unreported to police. With the exception of theft and motor vehicle theft, victimization rates for every type of crime measured were unchanged from the 2007 levels.
Violent and property crime rates in 2008 remain at the lowest levels recorded since 1973, the first year that such data were collected. The rate of every major violent and property crime measured by BJS fell between 1999 and 2008. The overall violent crime rate fell 41 percent and the property crime rate declined by 32 percent during the last 10 years.
In 2008, women were more likely than men to be victimized by someone they knew. Seventy percent of all violent crimes against women were committed by a known offender (an intimate, family member or friend/acquaintance), compared to 49 percent of violence against men. Twenty-three percent of the non-fatal violence against women was committed by an intimate (current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend), compared to three percent of the violence against men.
Between 1999 and 2008, the rate of firearm violence declined from 2.5 incidents per 1,000 persons age 12 or older to 1.4 per 1,000 persons. Offenders used firearms in seven percent of all violent crimes in 2008, unchanged from 1999.
Nearly half of all violent crimes and 40 percent of all property crimes were reported to police in 2008. Of the violent crimes, robbery (61 percent) and aggravated assault (62 percent) were most reported. Forty-one percent of rape/sexual assaults and simple assaults were reported to the police. A higher percentage of motor vehicle thefts (80 percent) than burglaries (56 percent) and thefts (34 percent) were reported to police.
These findings are drawn from BJS’s National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), the nation’s primary source for information on the frequency, characteristics and consequences of criminal victimization. Conducted since 1973, the NCVS is one of the largest continuous surveys conducted by the Federal government. In 2008, 42,093 households and 77,852 individuals age 12 or older were interviewed twice during the year for the NCVS.
Estimates from the NCVS, which includes offenses both reported and unreported to police, complement those from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR), which measures crimes reported to law enforcement agencies across the Nation. Unlike the NCVS, the UCR includes crimes against persons of all ages and businesses, as well as fatal crimes. Preliminary UCR results released by the FBI in June showed a 2.5 percent decline in violent crimes reported to the police and a 1.6 percent decline in property crimes during 2008.
The report, Criminal Victimization, 2008 (NCJ 227777), was written by BJS statistician Michael Rand. Following publication, the report can be found at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cv08.htm.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
What You Can Do About Overpopulation: CAPS Offers Nine Things to Talk About on Earth Day
Since Earth Day 2008, an estimated 80 million people have been added to the planet. That’s approximately 150 people a minute, or about 6.6 million people every month. Think of it as adding a city roughly the size of Chicago, Hong Kong or Hyderabad, India — every single month.
World population now is 6.8 billion. This growth in human population, coupled with unprecedented human activity, use of natural resources and rapid economic growth, is unsustainable. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that fertility has been declining in most countries recently. However, Africa continues to experience very high fertility, with some African countries averaging more than seven children per woman. Other countries with a high TFR (total fertility rate) off-the-charts are Afghanistan (7.07), Yemen (6.32), Paraguay (3.75) and Pakistan (3.60), as well as ultra-Orthodox communities within Israel where the TFR may be as high as 8.
But the bad news on top of bad news is that the high birth rates persist in countries with high poverty and illiteracy, poor health care and female inequality. And even though some countries are experiencing fertility rates lower than in the past, the planet nonetheless is still on an unsustainable trajectory. More must be done to decrease high fertility rates in the less developed world.
“In the United States, we’re importing unsustainable population by failing to enforce our immigration laws; on top of that, we’re proposing amnesty for illegal aliens which will impact our growth for years to come because of ‘chain’ migration. Under present policy immigrants can sponsor, in addition to minor children, spouses and parents, their sisters and brothers, who with their spouses, can then bring in their extended families and all adult children,” said Diana Hull, Ph.D., President of Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS).
“We want to bring needed focus on Earth Day to the problem of overpopulation — here in California, as well as in the U.S. and the world. Clearly it is at the root of most of our environmental problems,” added Hull. “From wildlife habitat loss and water shortages to congested roads and suburban sprawl, overpopulation is a major negative for our quality of life.”
To encourage more discussion on the impacts of overpopulation, CAPS offers these suggestions on Earth Day:
1. Educate yourself about the impacts of overpopulation in your community, your country and the world. Consider how the news behind the headlines (a new housing development, an amnesty for illegal aliens, water shortages) can be traced directly to population growth.
2. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, favorite online news site or blog about the impacts of overpopulation on the environment — educate others about how big a problem this is and why it must be addressed.
3. Volunteer or contribute to nonprofit organizations that work on overpopulation issues at the state, national or global levels.
4. Contact your legislators and let them know that you want immigration laws enforced and do not support an amnesty that will add millions of people to an already overpopulated United States. Amnesty will increase population by encouraging even more immigration. Consider that at least 98 percent of California’s present growth is from direct immigration and births to immigrants
5. Initiate a discussion with friends, family and colleagues about overpopulation. You might begin by asking what they think will happen to America if the population continues to double every two or three generations.
6. Keep your population facts at hand for discussion. For instance, the population increased four times between AD 1 and 1830 from an estimated 230 million to 1 billion. A six fold rise to 6.8 billion has occurred in the 180 years since.
7. Ask environmental organizations to be sure to include information in their literature on how overpopulation impacts the issues they’re concerned about.
8. Support policy changes that will have a positive impact on a sustainable country, including ending birthright citizenship and decreasing government incentives for having more than two children.
9. Advocate for improving education and governance in developing countries.
Source: Californians for Population Stabilization
Identity Theft Complaints Increase Significantly in 2008
2008 FTC Fraud and Identity Theft Complaint Data Documents Highest Ever Number of Identity Theft Complaints; Jump in Tax Return Fraud Complaints
Today the Federal Trade Commission documented the most cases of identity theft ever in one year in the 2008 Fraud and Identity Theft Complaint Data.
Affinion Security Center, a leading provider of identity theft protection services, has also reported over the last six months an increase of approximately 25 percent in the illegal trade of personal information in online chat rooms where thieves buy and sell stolen information such as credit card and social security numbers.
In 2008, the FTC reported that it had received approximately 1,200,000 complaints related to fraud, identity theft and other consumer complaints, an approximately 50 percent increase over the previous year. Those consumers reported fraud related losses of more than $1.8 billion. While the report showed that identity theft is widespread, the states reporting the most complaints – Arizona, California, and Florida, coincide with the states reporting the highest rates of foreclosure, demonstrating that the economic downturn has coincided with an upturn in fraud.
“This FTC report confirms what we have been seeing in the online chat rooms where identity thieves buy and sell stolen personal information. Since we are constantly monitoring these rooms on behalf of our customers, we’ve been able to track a significant increase in activity over the last six months,” said Dan Clements, vice president, Affinion Security Center. “In fact, we think that the number of complaints that the FTC receives are just the tip of the iceberg, and there are actually many more cases of identity theft that go unreported. Americans, more than any other nation, are vulnerable to identity theft,” he added.
The FTC report also showed that credit card fraud was the most common form of identity theft. When credit card information is stolen, the thieves often turn to online chat rooms where they buy and sell this information and also conduct tests to ensure the validity of the card. Affinion Security Center’s CardCops team monitors these forums on behalf of customers, alerting them if their information is ever found in a chat room. In addition, the CardCops team has been able to track down the source of hundreds of data breaches through its research, providing a consumer service by alerting businesses that their information may have been leaked and their customer data compromised.
2008 also demonstrated a more than 50 percent increase in the percentage of identity theft complaints related to fraudulent tax returns filed.
“The difficult economic environment is coinciding with a significant increase in cases of identity theft,” said Tom Rusin, president of Affinion Security Center. “We believe that solutions such as IdentitySecure, which protect against many types of identity threats, can help bring consumers some peace of mind that they are protected.”
Each feature of the IdentitySecure solution is designed to address the modern threats facing consumers, threats that can’t be adequately monitored by an average, or even technology-savvy, individual. The IdentitySecure service includes features such as monitoring of social security numbers and public records to detect criminal activity, frequent data sweeps of the internet for personal information, credit monitoring, and monitoring of underground chat rooms that buy and sell personal information. While breaches are often unavoidable, IdentitySecure provides proactive searches, early detection and recovery assistance.
For more information, please visit www.affinionsecuritycenter.com.
Affinion Security Center
Affinion Security Center, a division of Norwalk, Connecticut-based Affinion Group, is a premier security, credit monitoring and identity theft protection innovator with nearly 35 years of global experience. It launched HotLine, a leading ID theft, credit card, fraud protection and security service in 1969. PrivacyGuard, a comprehensive membership credit monitoring product which was created in 1992, remains one of the most widely used in the U.S. In 2006, ID Secure, a sophisticated tool that uses leading-edge public records, Social Security number and credit monitoring technology to fight ID theft, was born. Another ID theft protection service in Affinion’s growing security business is PC SafetyPlus, an identity theft software service that protects members with a personal firewall to thwart hackers and other online ID threats. PC SafetyPlus software features automatic updates and service upgrades for protection against prevailing computer viruses, spyware and worms. In 2008 BreachShield, the preeminent solution to corporate data breach response, was introduced to the product line. Affinion Security Center is part of the steering committee of the Identity Theft Prevention and Identity Management Standards Panel (IDSP) and is a member of the Staples Security Council. For more information please visit www.affinionsecuritycenter.com.