US crime falls despite recession

LOS ANGELES: US law enforcement agencies are reporting a surprising drop in crime last year, with homicide rates in some major cities plunging to levels not seen in four decades, despite a deep and prolonged recession.

The FBI's latest nationwide figures show that violent crime for the United States as a whole declined by 4.4 percent in the first half of 2009, compared with the first half of 2008, led by a 10 percent drop in murders.

Falling crime in urban centers such as New York, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles, coinciding with the worst economic slump since the 1930s, is challenging long-held social theories linking lawlessness to joblessness.