Violent crime rises for second consecutive year

WASHINGTON — Violent crime in the United States rose for the second  naruto cosplay costumes  year in a row, a government report said Thursday, indicating that the nation's two-decade decline in crime has ended.
The 2012 National Crime Victimization Survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 26 of every 1,000 people experienced violent crime, a 15% increase in how many people reported being victims of rape, robbery or assault. Property crime — burglary, theft and car theft — rose 12%.
"We've plateaued. At this point, I don't think we're going to see any more decreases in crime," said criminologist James Alan Fox of Northeastern University in Boston. "The challenge will be making sure crime rates don't go back up."
Even so, after two decades of falling crime rates, violent crime remains at historically low levels. Crime rates have dropped steadily since 1993, when 80 of every 1,000 people reported being victims of violent crime. The homicide rate declined 48% from 1993 to 2011.
Keeping more criminals behind bars longer and developing better crime-fighting technology helped drive down crime rates, Fox said.
"Going back 20 years or more, policing was done blindly," Fox said. "Now, due to technology, police can be much more proactive in dealing with crime problems before they get out of hand."
The report follows the FBI's 2012 Uniform Crime Report, released in September, which documented more than 1.2 million violent crimes nationwide — about 1% more than in 2011. For 2011, data from the victims survey also showed an increase in violent crime: up 17% from 2010, the sharpest rise in two decades.
The victimization survey, which collects data from 162,940 people over age 12, found that 26 of every 1,000 people were victims of crime in 2012, up from 23 in 2011. Most of the increase is made up of simple assaults and crimes that were not reported to police. That information is not included in the Uniform Crime Report, which is considered the definitive measure of crime in the United States.
Taken together, the figures indicate a slight shift in direction, said James Lynch, chairman of the University of Maryland's criminology and criminal justice department.
"It's not exactly a crime wave. It's more like a flattening out," Lynch said. "I don't see this as terribly alarming, but more as something to pay attention to."
The data found that about 70% of the violent crimes were simple assault. Since the survey involves interviewing victims, homicide is not included. The domestic violence rate held steady, the survey found.
Budget cuts may lead to more increases if policing is cut, Fox said.
"You don't solve the crime problem. You only control it," he said. "When you let up on the gas, bad things will happen. This plateauing and inching up a bit is just a warning to us that we have to keep on investing in  ninja costume  crime prevention and crime control."

5 craziest crimes of the week

This week: An out-of-town traveler gets a deadly reception in Chicago costume cosplay vampire knight  , and an alleged shoplifter is found to have something incredibly grisly in her bag.
1. Guy asks for directions, is shot dead: An Arkansas man who police say got lost driving around Chicago was shot and killed yesterday, apparently by a man he had just asked for directions.
2. Girls stopped for shoplifting had fetus in bag, cops say: A security guard on the lookout for shoplifters at a Manhattan Victoria's Secret ended up making the most gruesome of finds yesterday afternoon: what appeared to be a fetus in a plastic bag, police say.
3. People filmed sex assault instead of stopping it, cops say: On the upside, some people caught evidence of an alleged sexual assault on Instagram over the weekend in Ohio, which may help police investigate the incident. On the downside, those people posted the pictures and videos online, but didn't call police or otherwise try to stop it. Here's what they show.
4. Cops investigate after nut placed in allergic kid's drink: "Either the student who did this is completely stupid or it's attempted manslaughter." That quote from a high school principal in Sweden pretty much sums up the case of an allergic student who nearly suffocated when someone put a nut into her water. And authorities think it was deliberate.
5. Guy gives weird excuse for going 140mph: When you gotta go, apparently you gotta go 140mph: Or at least that's the excuse 26-year-old Adam Lester fed to a cop in Pekin, Ill., after he was allegedly clocked going 140mph through town—all while a girl, 16, clung to his back. Click for more crazy crimes, including the story of a woman who was busted for stealing $2.87 from a fountain.
For more crazy crimes, visit Newser, a USA TODAY content partner providing general news, luffy cosplay costume  commentary and coverage from around the Web. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.

NICE bus fare boxes wipe cash value off some MetroCards, say passengers,

NICE bus fare boxes wipe cash value off some MetroCards, say passengers, advocates
Card error, out of luckAnthony Dixon, 25, said he has lost hatsune miku cosplay  several MetroCards in recent months to read errors, including one with a balance of $50. Without a way to pay his fare, drivers wouldn't let him on the bus, he said at the Mineola bus center. Generally, if a driver determines a MetroCard is malfunctioning, the passenger can still board the bus.
"I don't know what is the problem. The card is like brand new," said Dixon, a janitor, who added he recently had to walk from Mineola to his home in Roosevelt because his MetroCard malfunctioned and he didn't have cash to pay the $2.25 fare.
"I definitely think that the problem has gotten worse. We've seen that just from talking to riders," said Long Island Bus Riders Union founder Charlene Obernauer, who brought the problem to NICE's attention in February. Riders have also complained to NICE about the issue at public meetings as recently as last month.
"There would be a huge uproar if this was happening on the Long Island Rail Road, and it would be fixed pretty quickly," Obernauer said.
Setzer said there has not been an increase in the number of customer complaints about the issue over the last year, nor has NICE seen any drop in fare revenue, which would be the case if scores of regular customers were not paying for their rides.
"Not that we're keeping data on it, but nobody has noticed a higher incidence of read errors, so I think it may be more just greater awareness, because people are talking about it," he said. "But we're starting to pay attention because fare box is $45 million a year. It's 40 percent of our total revenue picture. So even if it's a small amount, we want to be sure it's covered."
Bus drivers are not given special instructions on how to address MetroCard errors other than to "handle it the best way possible," Setzer said.
"They have to make a judgment on whether this is a malfunctioning card and allow the passenger to ride or whether this is an attempt to evade a fare," he said.
Origin of errors unknownNICE officials said they don't know whether the errors are originating in the fare boxes or the MetroCards, but noted that the fact that other riders are able to use their MetroCards after one has a reader error would suggest a problem with a card.
MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz cited several kinds of possible reader errors, ranging from a damaged card to a dirty card reader. Ortiz added that the MTA, which issues MetroCards, provided NICE officials, at their request, with an explanation of the various reader error codes.
Ortiz added that while reader errors happen from time to time on MTA buses, "it's not really a prevailing problem on this end."
Setzer said maintenance of the boxes has remained steady since NICE's operator, Veolia Transportation, took over the Nassau system from the MTA in January 2012, and that most of the MTA's mechanics were kept on their jobs.
As a remedy for some riders, NICE is developing a mobile application that will allow fares to be paid using a smartphone instead of a MetroCard. The app would let users pre-load their accounts with money and pay by displaying their phones as they board.
Passengers would show a flashing phone screen to a bus operator to indicate they had paid their fare. Setzer said the app should be rolled out some time in 2014.
But Setzer acknowledged the app wouldn't be much of an option for about 15 percent of NICE's riders who count on the MetroCard's free transfers to and from MTA buses and subways.
"For those people for whom it works, it's a nice alternative to having to  hatsune miku wig   carry a bunch of change or relying on the MetroCard," Setzer said.

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