"Talk about a "surge." In part thanks to a misguided diversion of U.S. law enforcement funding to domestic count-terrorism, and the effects that has on programming and resource commitment by state and local agencies, violent crime in the U.S. has risen sharply in 2006. According to an article in the Washington Post, "Violent Crime Is Up For 2nd Straight Year," (December 19, 2006)
"Reports of homicides, assaults and other violent offenses surged by nearly 4 percent in the first six months of the year compared with the same time period in 2005, according to the FBI's latest Uniform Crime Report. The numbers included an increase of nearly 10 percent for robberies, which many criminologists consider a leading indicator of coming trends.The results follow a 2.5 percent jump in violent crime for 2005, which at the time represented the largest increase in 15 years.The latest numbers suggest that those results were not an anomaly but rather part of the first significant uptick in violent crime since the early 1990s, according to criminal justice experts."
There are cyclical effects here, but Dan Eggen of the Washington Post cites law enforcement officials across the country as blaming the administration for retreating "from fighting traditional crime in favor of combating terrorism and protecting homeland security."
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