BY PETE YOST

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Meanwhile, the total number of property crimes reported to law enforcement agencies went down by 0.5 percent to 9 million, the ninth consecutive year that figure has fallen.

Property crimes resulted in estimated losses of $156.6 billion.

The latest declines mark the continuation of a nearly two-decade drop in crime levels--a trend that almost no one in the field of criminology predicted, said Professor John Caulkins of Carnegie Mellon Heinz College.

The trend, said Caulkins, is a reflection of a range of many factors, including policing practices.

A drop in the number of people in the peak crime-age category of teens to 25-year-olds also contributed to the crime reductions, Caulkins said, but added that "if this were only a story of demographics, we would never have had this kind of substantial decline."

Government figures released two weeks ago said that violent crime has fallen by 65 percent since 1993.

Twenty years ago, "there was a lot of hand-wringing about high crime levels" but "we're way past the possibility that this is a lucky conversion," Caulkins said.

Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults reported to authorities all declined last year. According to the FBI's data for last year:

14,612 people were murdered, down 14.7 percent from 17,128 in 2007.

83,425 people were raped, down 9.4 percent from 92,160 in 2007.

354,396 people were robbed, down over 20 percent from 447,324 in 2007.

751,131 people were assaulted, down 13.3 percent from 866,358 in 2007.