WASHINGTON - The number of people who were victims of all violent crimes except murder fell by 9 percent in 2001, sending the crime rate to its lowest level since it was first tracked in 1973, the government reported Sunday.

CRIME UP HERE

Serious crime in the city of Cincinnati increased 20.7 percent in 2001. Auto theft rose 52.2 percent, rapes increased 6.5 percent, robberies were up 35.7 percent, aggravated assaults jumped 29.4 percent, burglaries rose 22 percent and theft was up 11.5 percent.

        The decline was due primarily to a record low number of reported assaults, the most common form of violent crime.

        The drop is detailed in the 2001 National Crime Victimization Survey which is based on interviews with victims and thus does not include murder.

        Experts discussing the new report said the decrease, part of a decade-long trend, is the result primarily of the strong economy in the 1990s and the prevalence of tougher sentencing laws.

        “Despite our perceptions, based on television or chats around the water-cooler, it is clear crime is on the decline in a significant way and has been for some years now,” said Ralph Myers, a criminologist at Stanford University.

        Since 1993, the violent crime rate has decreased by almost 50 percent.

        The new report says that between 2000 and 2001, the number of people who reported they were victims of violent crime fell from about 28 per 1,000 to about 25 per 1,000, a 10 percent drop. The number of people reporting violent crimes fell from 6,323,000 in 2000 to 5,744,000 in 2001.

        Only about half of the violent crimes reported in the survey were reported to police.

        Assault was down 10 percent, but victim reports reflected a 13 percent increase in injuries.

        Rape fell 8 percent, and sexual assaults - which include verbal threats and fondling - fell 20 percent. About half the women who reported rapes said the perpetrator was a friend or acquaintance.

        The overall property crime rate fell 6 percent between 2000 and 2001 and the car theft rate was up 7 percent, reflecting a jump from 937,000 car thefts in 2000 to 1,009,000 in 2001.

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