WASHINGTON -- A study released yesterday shows that the country's murder rate is about the same as it was six decades ago and that the rate for minorities has actually decreased in the past two decades.
But the homicide rate for children under 14 is "at or near record highs for the post-World War II era," the study said. And rates for preschoolers 4 and younger have risen to their highest levels in 40 years.
"The fears that we're losing our youth to violence is true," said Carol J. De Vita, director of publications for the Population Reference Bureau, a nonprofit research group that conducted the study. "There are clear signs of increased preschool risk. They are becoming more vulnerable to violence much earlier."
The bureau's study, "Homicide in the United States: Who's at Risk?," confirms some long-held perceptions about homicide in the United States but challenges a few of the prevailing ones.
"Everybody looks back and says, 'The good old days were better.' But we're now able to get a better focus on our larger history of homicide," Ms. De Vita said.
There's no debating one fact: The United States is still the murder capital of the world. Overall, there are about 10 murders per 100,000 people in the United States, far higher than other industrialized nations. That translates into about 70 murders per day. But the rate is the same as it was in 1933, although it fell during the late 1950s.
The gap in homicide rates between whites and nonwhites has narrowed since the 1970s, the report said. Then, homicide rates for minorities were 10 times higher than those of whites. By 1990, the rate had fallen to six to seven times higher.
Part of the difference, the study said, was because of an increase in homicide rates for whites in that time. The rate for white males increased from 9.2 per 100,000 in 1969-1971 to 10.2 in 1989-1991. But the rate for nonwhite males dropped from 74.6 in 1969-1971 to 53.7 in 1989-1991.
Ms. De Vita said that the distribution of offenders had not changed much through the years. The majority are between ages 15 and 24, the study said; just over half are black, and 42 percent were white. Most homicides were intraracial, with blacks killing blacks and whites killing whites.
The study, conducted by two researchers, F. Landis MacKellar and Machiko Yanagishita, analyzed National Center for Health Statistics data from 1920 to 1993 and the FBI's Uniform Crime Report statistics from 1964 to 1992.
America's peak homicide rate was in 1980, when 10.7 murders per 100,000 occurred, Ms. De Vita said.
"Whether it's our lawless frontier heritage or our 'go it alone, fight it out' mentality, it appears that violence and homicide have always been a part of our society," she said. And the current weapon of choice is clear: Between 1991 and 1993, more than two-thirds of victims were killed with firearms.
MURDER RATES
Homicides per 100,000 population
1. D.C. 66.5
2. Louisiana 18.5
3. Mississippi 17.5
4. California 13.6
5. New York 13.5
6. Texas 13.3
7. Alabama 13.2
8. Maryland 13.2
9. Arkansas 12.7
10. Georgia 12.3
11. S. Carolina 12.2
12. N. Carolina 11.9
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Entire U.S. 10.0
49. New Hamp. 2.0
50. N. Dakota 1.9
51. Iowa 1.9