Violent crime against Hispanics plummets, now comparable to rate of violence against whites

Sunday, April 7th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The rate of violent crime against Hispanics fell 56 percent over a seven-year period in the 1990s and is now similar to that against whites, the government reported Sunday.

The decrease for Hispanics coincided with a steep drop in violent crime against all U.S. residents and against whites, blacks and American Indians, according to the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics.

In 1993, the violent crime rate for Hispanics was closer to that for blacks, who experienced 70 violent crimes per 1,000 people. But by 2000, it was closer to that for whites, who experienced 27 violent crimes per 1,000 people.

``It seems to have flipped'' for Hispanics, said the report's author, Justice statistician Callie Rennison.

There were 28 violent crimes per 1,000 Hispanics older than 11 in 2000, compared with 63 violent crimes per capita in 1993, the report found. For other ethnic groups, the comparable 2000 figures were 34 per 1,000 for blacks, 52 per 1,000 for Indians and 8 per 1,000 for Asians.

Lisa Navarrete, a spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza, attributed the decrease for Hispanics, at least in part, to a concerted effort in police departments across the country to change attitudes toward Hispanics and build trust. Many police officers have taken to handing out bilingual cards, Navarrete said.

The report was the first study in nearly two decades to look in detail at violent crimes specifically against Hispanics, Rennison said.

The rate of violent crimes, which included rape, sexual assault, robbery, and simple and aggravated assault, fell across almost all demographic categories for Hispanics. The drops were particularly pronounced among women and those living in rural areas.

The statistics were gleaned from interviews with more than 730,000 people over age 11, meaning the estimates include crimes that are reported to police as well as the many more that are not.

The report defined a Hispanic as someone of any race with Spanish origin, while those identified as other races refer only to non-Hispanic people of that race.

Murder, by far the least frequent but best reported of major crimes, does not show up in the report because the survey records only crimes reported firsthand by victims it interviews.

Rennison said Hispanics were victimized in urban areas at a lower rate than were blacks and whites. But in rural areas, Hispanics were victimized at higher rates than either whites or blacks. In suburban areas, the rate for Hispanics was similar to that for blacks but higher than that for whites.

``There were three very distinct patterns,'' Rennison said.

In 2000, Hispanics were the victims of 690,470 violent crimes, or 11 percent of the total _ an amount roughly proportionate to Hispanics' representation in the total population. Most were simple assaults.

In 1999, the most recent year for which data are available, there were 2,864 Hispanic murder victims, according to a separate report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That translates to a rate of 9.1 homicides for every 100,000 Hispanics, compared with a national rate of 6.2 murders per 100,000 U.S. residents.

In every category, including the total crime rate, the per capita crime rates were lowest for Asians. Except for robbery, the rates for American Indians were the highest in every category. Blacks were robbed at the highest rate.