Today, the FBI releases it’s crime statistics for 2006.

Violent crime continues to rise, up nearly 2% from 2005 and approaching the high of 2002. Big city homicides rose by 1.8% (as they did nationwide), but the number of rapes dropped.

Aggravated assault accounted for the majority of violent crimes, 60.7 percent. Robbery for 31.6 percent and forcible rape 6.5 percent. Murder, the least committed violent offense, made up 1.2 percent of violent crimes in 2006.

Firearms, continue to be the favourite weapon of choice and were used in 67.9 percent of the nations murders, 42.2 percent of robbery offenses, and in 21.9 percent of the aggravated assaults. Knives were a distant second.

Even a simple browse through the data is a necessity. It details crime figures by geographic region, State, and even by University and College. There are further listings by age, gender, sex, race etc. of those arrested.

To see the full 2006 FBI Uniform Crime Report click here.