This new report from the US Department of Justice (USDOJ) Bureau of Justice Statistics reveals that violent and property crimes have fallen to their lowest levels since the Crime Victimization Survey was begun in 1973. Violent crime rates in 1997 were 21% lower than in 1993, while property crime fell 22% from the same year and over 50% from 1973. Some analysts have suggested that the large decrease in the 1990s, particularly in robbery rates, which fell 17% in 1997 alone, can be attributed in large measure to the collapse of the crack market and recent efforts to find and seize handguns. The news is not all good, however, as one might expect. In contrast to the decline in violent victimization rates for the general population, the rate of violent crimes against persons 50 and older was no lower than in 1993. At the site, users can download and view the entire report in .pdf or ASCII format, read the press release, and download the spreadsheets in .zip format.