Twelve percent year on year during a recession? I know that the trend has been downwards but it doesn’t seem plausible that it would suddenly decline so steeply right now.
As I said, there are many different factors - some mentioned on this thread. One major point is simply that America's attitude and policy changes towards crime beginning in the 80's is continuing to bear fruit. I am not going to argue that this particular statistic is perfectly accurate, only pointing out that the crime rate has been going down for years across much of the nation and this report isn't surprising considering the trend.
You know we are doing something right when the MSM is baffled by it. One of the funniest headlines I've seen fairly regularly in such rags as the NY Times and WaPo goes as follows:
Crime rate continues to drop despite record incarceration rates.
The left still can't figure out that being tough on crime and jailing criminals actually reduces crime. The establishment intellectuals are still stuck in the 60's, but most Americans simply demand their representatives be tough on criminals - even the Democrats they vote for. It was one of those shifts that the Democratic party largely was forced to go along with (much as they've dumped gun control).