According to the FBI’s Preliminary Uniform Crime Report for 2005, all regions of the coun­try expe­ri­enced a rise in mur­der rates in 2005. The Midwest had the largest increase (5.8%) and the West had the small­est increase (3.2%). Based on the increas­es report­ed by the FBI and the pre­vi­ous year’s mur­der rates, the South again had the high­est mur­der rate in the coun­try– 6.9 mur­ders per 100,000 peo­ple – fol­lowed by the West (5.9), Midwest (5.0) and the Northeast (4.4). The rates for forcible rape were down in every area of the coun­try. Final sta­tis­tics will be avail­able from the FBI in the fall. (FBI Press Release, June 12, 2006).

About 80% of the exe­cu­tions in the coun­try have occurred in the South since the rein­state­ment of the death penal­ty. The Northeast, the region with the low­est mur­der rate, has had less than 1% of the exe­cu­tions. See Deterrence.

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