Year-to-year violent crime rates in the United States rose for the first time in nearly 20 years, a report released by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics indicates.

The report, released Wednesday, indicates that the trend of declining year-to-year violent crime rates since 1993 was reversed in 2011 when the rate rose by 17 percent. Property crime, which includes burglary, larceny, shoplifting, auto-theft, arson and vandalism, rose by 11 percent. Simple assaults, which involve simple arguments between two people that escalate only to a point where one calls the police, increased by 22 percent.

These percentages represent the following data: Simple assaults rose from 4 million to 5 million cases. Property crime incidents increased from 15.4 million to 17 million. Of this property crime, there were 12.8 million thefts, up from 11.6 million, and household burglaries rose from 3.2 million to 3.6 million.

Criminologists attribute the reversal of this declining trend in crime mostly to the simple assaults which themselves are “so low-level in severity that they are not even included in the fbi counts of serious crime,” according to criminology professor James Alan Fox. Also, the 2011 numbers, criminologists argue, are being compared to historically low crime rates of 2010. As Professor Fox said, “2011 may be worse than 2010, but it was also the second-best in recent history.” Assistant criminology professor, Chris Melde, cautioned against forecasting future crime trends based on one-year changes. Criminologist Charles Wellford, said, “I wouldn’t make much out of it,” adding that one year doesn’t make a trend.

Considering that a 20-year trend is being broken, and considering the violence in some American cities like Detroit, and the historic trend that less than half of all crimes are ever reported to the police, it seems a mistake to entirely dismiss these statistics.

The Trumpet forecasts future crime trends, based on more than one-year changes. We look at geopolitical, social, moral and spiritual trends, but most importantly at Bible prophecy. That source forecasts an explosion of violence in America’s cities that will shatter previous trends. You can read about this in Chapter 4 of Ezekiel: The End Time Prophet.

We also offer solutions to crime which are based on Bible prophecy. Read “The End of American Crime” and Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s booklet, “The Way of Peace Restored Momentarily.”