Good news on the violent crime rate

As detailed in this AP report, crime "dipped slightly for the first half of 2007, the FBI reported Monday, signaling a stop to a 2-year increase in violence nationwide."  Here are more details:

Violent crime — including murders, rapes and robberies — dropped by 1.8 percent between January and June last year, the FBI's preliminary data show.  Property crimes also decreased, including a 7.4 percent drop in car thefts and arsons by nearly 10 percent.  But violent crime appears to be rising, if slightly, in small cities and rural areas, the data show.

A lot more details are available here from the official FBI website.  It has this great start to this new data: "It’s a good start: in the first six months of 2007, crime rates dropped for the first time in two years.  Nationwide, violent crime fell 1.8 percent and property crime 2.6 percent compared to the same period last year."