Crime Rate | featured news

Medical marijuana dispensaries would seem to be natural targets for criminals... The models the researchers came up with confirmed that factors such as unemployment, commercial zoning and a high proportion of young adults were indeed associated with higher crime rates. But the number of marijuana clinics in a neighborhood had nothing to do with any of it, they found.

The FBI says that violent crime dropped 6 percent in 2010, marking the fourth straight year of declines. And property crime also was down for the eighth straight year, falling 2.7 percent.

The numbers, continuing a 20-year trend, defy expectations of higher crime during a period of economic problems. The nation's crime rate dropped 5% last year, continuing a 20-year trend that has cut the incidence of major crimes nearly in half, according to FBI statistics .

Criminologists call reduction in violent crime in Washington area, other major cities mystifying.