US crime rates hit 32-year low but gun violence up slightly in 2005: DOJ News
US crime rates hit 32-year low but gun violence up slightly in 2005: DOJ

[JURIST] US violent and property crime rates in 2005 reached the lowest levels since 1973, the first year such statistics were kept, according to estimations released Sunday by the US Justice Department [official website]. The report, Criminal Victimization, 2005 [text; press release] by the Bureau of Justice Statistics [official website] also shows that while slightly more robberies and gun violence incidents [AP report] occurred in the US in 2005 than in 2004, the overall violent crime rate stayed the same as the year before. Overall, the violent crime rate has fallen 52 percent between 1993 and 2005, and the overall property crime rate fell 58 percent during the same time period.

The Justice Department statistics reinforce a Federal Bureau of Investigation [official website] preliminary report [text], released in June, that indicated a rise in violent crime [JURIST report] for the first time since 2001. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Supreme Court said busing could be used to achieve racial integration

On April 20, 1971, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education that busing of school students could be ordered to achieve racial desegregation.

League of Nations dissolved

On April 20, 1946, the League of Nations was officially dissolved with the close of its final session. Thirty-four countries had attended the final meeting at which they elected to dismantle the organization and bequeath its assets to the United Nations.

Read a history of League of Nations from the UN.

More This Day @ Law... ▸