The Federal Bureau of Investigation recent­ly released the pre­lim­i­nary find­ings of its annu­al Uniform Crime Report for 2012. The final report will like­ly be pub­lished in October, but the ini­tial sta­tis­tics indi­cate the num­ber of mur­ders in the U.S. increased slight­ly by 1.5% from 2011. Three regions of the coun­try showed an increase in mur­ders, while one region declined. Murders in the Northeast decreased by 4.4%. The num­ber of mur­ders increased by 3.3% in the Midwest, 2.5% in the South, and 2.5% in the West. The entire Northeast has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since 2005 and accounts for less than 1% of the exe­cu­tions in the coun­try since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1976. It con­sis­tent­ly has the low­est mur­der rate for the 4 regions. The South, which reg­u­lar­ly has the high­est mur­der rate, has been respon­si­ble for 82% of the exe­cu­tions; the Midwest 12%; and the West 6%.

(“Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report, January-December, 2012,” U.S. Dept. of Justice, June 2013; DPIC post­ed, Aug. 14, 2013). See Deterrence and Murder Rates.

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