[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 133 (Tuesday, September 24, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1674]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      ``SUSPICIOUS CRIME REPORT''

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DOUG BEREUTER

                              of nebraska

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 24, 1996

  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, this Member highly commends to his 
colleagues the following editorial regarding violent crime rates and 
the Clinton administration which appeared in the Omaha World Herald on 
September 20, 1996.

             [From the Omaha World Herald, Sept. 20, 1996]

                        Suspicious Crime Report

       The Clinton administration claims that it has significantly 
     reduced violent crime. So why don't Americans feel safer?
       For one thing, the administration's claim is based in part 
     on a survey in which the methodology had been changed. For 
     another, even if the crime rate had a one-year decline, a 
     similar survey showed no significant decline in the 1992-94 
     period. Moreover, the statistics still don't reflect the 
     evidence of the creeping chaos that is encountered by many 
     citizens on their streets and in their neighborhoods.
       Researchers at the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice 
     Statistics said this week preliminary results of a survey 
     show that an estimated 9.9 million violent crimes were 
     committed in the United States in 1995, a 9 percent drop from 
     the previous year, but a decline of only 3.7 percent from 
     1992. Attorney General Janet Reno said the figures 
     demonstrated that the Clinton administration had found 
     ``solutions that work.''
       The Justice Department released the survey report at an odd 
     time. Last year, no preliminary estimates at all were 
     released. This year, though spring is the normal release 
     time, the estimates were not made public until this week. 
     It's just a coincidence, we suppose, that the election is 
     only seven weeks away.
       President Clinton hailed the report as proof that ``we're 
     moving in the right direction,'' implying that the 
     administration had caused a drop in crime.
       However, the numbers don't reflect actual crimes. They are 
     from an estimate based on a survey. Unreported crimes--a 
     wildly speculative notion--are included. Moreover, the survey 
     did not track homicides.
       The sharpest decline in violent crimes was in rape. The 
     Justice Department's National Crime Victimization Study 
     included date rape, and in the category of domestic violence 
     and date rape it used ``enhanced questions'' to get a better 
     estimate. The result was that in spite of reports of 
     increased sexual assaults by rape crisis centers, the Justice 
     Department estimated that rapes declined from 432,700 in 1994 
     to 354,670 last year. Crime experts were stunned.
       If rape figures--either in 1994 or in 1995--are treated 
     with the skepticism that they deserve, and if homicides 
     weren't even included, what is left is at best a slight one-
     year decline in aggravated assault, simple assault and 
     robbery--as reported by victims, not as reported to the 
     FBI.
       Another way to calculate the crime rate is to consolidate 
     the figures from local law enforcement reports. That is the 
     method used in compiling the FBI's annual Uniform Crime 
     Report, made public last May. The dean of the criminal 
     justice college at Northeastern University, noting that the 
     FBI report indicated a 4 percent decline, said the country 
     was experiencing ``the calm before the crime storm.'' Other 
     experts said that as the children of the baby boomers move 
     into the high-crime 15-to-24 age bracket, more violent crime 
     is likely. * * *
       Americans are entitled to be annoyed at political rhetoric 
     and rosy statistics purporting to show that violent crime is 
     decreasing sharply. If they now have to barricade themselves 
     inside a car and have a cellular phone in order to drive the 
     streets of Omaha safely at 8 in the morning, government at 
     all levels is failing. And the Clinton administration's 
     claims to have made a major difference are no better than a 
     sick joke.

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