The U.S. Department of Justice recent­ly released its annu­al FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2012. The nation­al mur­der rate remained approx­i­mate­ly the same in 2012 as in 2011. The Northeast, the region with the fewest exe­cu­tions, had the low­est mur­der rate of any region, and its mur­der rate decreased 3.4% from the pre­vi­ous year. The South, which car­ries out the most exe­cu­tions of any region, again had the high­est mur­der rate in 2012. The mur­der rate in the West remained about the same, while the rate in the Midwest increased slight­ly. Six of the nine states with the low­est mur­der rates are states with­out the death penal­ty. The aver­age mur­der rate of death penal­ty states was 4.7, while the aver­age mur­der rate of states with­out the death penal­ty was 3.7 (not weight­ed by pop­u­la­tion).

(“Crime in the United States, 2012″, U.S. Dept. of Justice (2013); DPIC analy­sis post­ed October 28, 2013). See Deterrence and Murder Rates.

REGION
 2012
 2011
Northeast 3.8 3.9
West 4.2 4.2
Midwest 4.7 4.5
South 5.5 5.5
NATIONAL 4.7
 4.7

Rates are num­ber of mur­ders per 100,000 persons.

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