Wage Four
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Thursday, August 29, 1968
NO REGION IMMUNE'
FBI indings show crime increase
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WASHINGTON ()-The FBI
reports a continued upswing in
serious crime in the United
States, acounted for largely by
an increase in crimes of violence.
No city, state or geographic
region appeared immune from
part of the hefty 16 per cent
boost in serious crime, said
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.
At the same time, he noted a
drop of 8 per cent in the num-
bers',of offenses solved.
The figures were from the
FBI's 1967 Uniform Crime Re-
ports, a bulky volume of police
statistice gathered across the
nation each year.
Even more startling than the
comparative figures for 1967
and 1966, however, were/ those
for the current decade. These
showed an increase in serious
crime since 1960 of 89 per cent,
with a rise in crimes of violence
of 73 per cent.
The new figures convinced
some of the most respected
critics of the FBI's statistics
that serious crimes are rising in
number and extent.
Although the bureau has re-_
ported' crime increases during
each annual period since 1961,
many academic experts have
tended to discount the reports.
FBI critics pointed out that
crimes of violence had barely
increased, while the huge an-
nual rise in petty property of-
fenses inflated the overal fig-
ure.
But the increase this year
was led by a 28 per cent jump
in robberies, which, includes
muggings, stickups, bank rob-
beries, and thefts involving a
threat of bodily harm.
Hoover said he is most con-
cerned with a pattern that has
emerged linking youth with
violence, particularly in the
large, metropolitan areas. And
the long-time FBI head made
what has become almost an
annual appeal "for greater so-
cial action to prevent and
abort more careers in crime."
More than 3.8 million serious
crimes were reported during
1967, 494,000 of them crimes of
a violent nature, Hoover said.
Prof. Lloyd E. Ohlin of the
Harvard Law School, a crimino-
logigist and outspoken critic of
some of the FBI's statistical
methods said the jump in rob-
beries "makes me shake a bit."
Ohlin said robberies are con-
sidered a bellwether of violent
criminality because robberies
indicate a tendency to use vio-
lence on strangers.
"Although I'm pretty good
at explaining crime increases
away, I simply do not have an
explanation for this," he said.
"Some part 'of it must reflect
a change in readiness of people
to resort to armed attack
against strangers."
Prof. Marvin E. Wolfgang of
the University of Pennsylvania,
also a critic of F.B.I. statistics,
agreed that "the violent crime
increase is accurate.
A summary of the statistics
for 1967 compared with 1966
year, an increase since 1960
of 71 per cent.
Providing a group of "crime
clocks", the FBI report showed
the rate of various types of
crime as each minute ticked by.
Serious crimes occurred at a
rate of 7 a minute; someone
was being murdered every 43
minutes and a woman was
being raped each 19 minutes.
Aggravated assaults occurred
at the rate of one every 2 min-
utes while there was a robbery
every 2% minutes.
Somebody's house was being
burgled every 20 seconds while
cars were being stolen at the
rate of one every 48 seconds.
Every 30 seconds, property
other than a car was being stol-
en.
-Robbery, up 27 per cent
with an increase in the bank
robbery rate of 45 per cent.
-Crimes against property up
17 per cent.
The arrest figure showed
that the crime rate for Negroes
was about four times that of
whites with a murder rate
eight times that of the general
population.
Although Negroes make up
only 13 percent of the U.S. pop-
ulation, more Negroes t h a n
whites were arrested in 1967
for murder, aggravated assault,
carrying concealed weapons,
prostitution and gambling.
The report concluded that
almost two people in every 100
ran the risk of becoming a
victim of serious crime last
Bureau cites gunshot
in 63 per cent of U.S.
WASHINGTON WP)-The FBI
reported Monday the gun is gain-,
ing favor as a murder weapon inI
the United States. It had a role in
63 per cent of the nation's more
than 12,000 homicides last year.
This is a sharp 17 per cent in-
crease over 1966.
But the figures compiled by the
FBI show that states with some
form of gun control generally had
a lower proportion of gun deaths
than states that did not.
The big surge in killings by guns
was by handguns, which accounted
for 48 per cent of the total of alli
murders committed in this coun-
try.
Shotguns were used in 9 per cent'
of all slayings and rifles in 6 per
cent, the FBI statistics showed.+
Detailed figures on te number
of persons murdered by gunfire in
the United States since 1962 were
given for the first time in thel
FBI's annual Uniform Crime Re-l
ports, a compilation of data from:
law enforcement agencies across
the nation.3
A total of 59,015 homicides were
recorded for all states from 1962+
through 1967. Fifty-eight per cent
of these were firearms murders.
Four Northeastern states with
strict gun control laws wereI
among the lowest in the incidence
of murder by firearm. Rhode Is-
showed these trends:
-Crimes of violence increas-
ed 16 per cent, the same as the
incidence of all serious crime.
-Firearms were used in 63
per cent of all homicides, a 17
per cent increase over 1966.
There were 11 per cent more
murders in 1967 than in the
previous year.
-Serious crime trends were
consistent to all areas-16 per
cent higher in the suburbs, 17
per cent higher in the large
cities and 12 per cent up in the
countryside.
-Narcotics arrests up 60 per
cent, attributed largely to an
-increase in marijuana cases.
-Police solutions of serious
crimes, down 8 per cent.
-Forsible rape, up 7 per cent.
ounds
murders
land had 34.1 per cent; New York
34.9 per cent; Massachusetts 39.9
per cent; and New Jersey 41.2 per
cent.
Three of the five states with
some form of control also were
well below the average-Hawaii
48.6 per 'cent; Michigan 52.4 per
cent; Illinois 57 per cent. Missouri
67.1, and North Carolina 70.2,
were the exceptions.
Vermont, with 83.3 per cent,
had the highest per cent murder
by firearm between 1962 and 1967
followed by Kentucky, 77.3.
The states with the highest
numbers of homicides between
1962 and 1967 were: Texas, 5,104;
California, 4,857; and New York,
4,835. New York's gun deaths,
however, ran only" 34 per cent
while in the other two states,
neither of which have gun control
laws, the rates were 70 per cent
for Texas and 52 per cent for
California.
Last year, as in 1966, firearms
were the predominent murder
weapons in the Southern states,
thereport shows, with guns used,
in more than seven of every 10-
actual figrue 72.2 per cent-homi-
cides.
In the north central states near-c
ly 66 per cent of all illegal killings
were with firearms last year, com-
pared with 59 per cent in the
West and 44 per cent in the North.
east.
-Daily-Thomas R, Copi
Pigs' versu s yippies
"Pigs" means police to the Yippies, members of the Youth International Party, who descended on
Chicago last weekend to begin a week of protest against the Democratic convention. On Sunday
night police clubbed several Yippies as they cleared the protesters out of their "free motel" in
Lincoln Park.
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Washtenaw County's delegation
to the Michigan Democratic Con-
vention tomorrow and Saturday
will be spearheaded by an entour-
age of Eugene McCarthy support-
ers. McCarthyites won 38 of the
delegation's 50 seats at last week's
county convention.
At the marathon county con-
vention, which lasted i n t o the
dawn hours, liberal resolutions
concerning thie Vietnam war and
marijuana laws squeaked by the
mixed convention.
Also among the convention sur-
prises was the upset victory of
Bunyon Bryant over the "estab-
lishment" candidacy of J o h n
Toomey in the race for permanentf
convention chairman. Bryant is
former Ann Arbor chapter leader
of the Congress of Racial Equality
and Toomey is t h e Democratic
candidate for Washtenaw County
prosecuting attorney.
A left-wing colation of the Black
Caucus and the local chapter of,
the Michigan Committee of Con-1
cerned Democrats pushed throughx
a resolution endorsing Abe For-
tas as Supreme Court Justice.
Reacting to a more conservative the upcoming convention include
resolution from the majority re- nominations of candidates for
port of the convention's resolu- University Regent, M i c h i g a n
tions committee, party doves tal-
lied 56 votes to the opposition's State University Trustees and
55 for a substitute resolution call- Wayne State University gov-
ing for: ernors.
-The orderly but prompt with-;
drawal of U.S. troops from South
Vietnam.
-Amnesty for those in South
Vietnam desiring it.
-Self - determination for the
Vietnamese people, including ex-
panded peace negotiations to hear
the views of t h e South Vietna-
mese people and of the National
Liberation Front.
Since the resolution was passed
only as a substitute and not as a
major resolution, county Demo-
crats still remain divided o v e r
'V
Strategy for the upcoming gen-
eral election campaign is also
expected to be discussed at the
session.
Aid sought for
Biafra victims
A drive to aid victims of the
Nigeria-Biafra civil war has col-
lected over $6,000 in the Ann Ar-
bor area. The fund drive is being
co-sponsored by the.Newman Stu-
dent Association and the Campus
Ecumenical 9enter.
Funds, collected by mail dona-
tions and bucket drives, are being
sent to the Church World Services
and Caritas, two organizations
which haye been providing relief
for Biafrans.The money is used
to purchase food and medical sup-
plies for victims for the war.
An agreement on use of land
and air corridors for delivery of
relife supplies to Bialra reached
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last
week-end has aided hopes for
swift delivery of aid.
independent vote over to the Dem-
ocratic ticket.
Opponents said such a m o v e
would engender factionalism with-
in the party.
The state Democratic Party
already accomplished most of its
election year business at a ;con-
vention in Detroit in early June,
Topics remaining for action at
whether it should be the conven-
tion's official resolution on Viet-
nam.
Tension mounted again when a
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A move to endorse McCarthy as resolution calling f o r "a crash
the Democratic presidential can- program of scientific evaluation of
iate fell one vote short of pass- . marijuana and revision of
ing - 71 to. 71. Supporters of the "current laws so punishment for
Minnesota Senator argued such the possession and usage of mar-
a resolution would show the na- j uana f i t s the crime." Sheriff
tional Democratic convention.in Douglas Harvey and the Ypsilanti
Chicago that party members want Township delegation walked out
a change from- present adminis- after the passage of the resolu-
tration policies and that McCar- tion.
thy is the candidate most capable The state convention starts Fri-j
of swinging the all - important day in Grand Rapids.I
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