A new report from the Urban Institute says that while the D.C. area weathered the late-2000s recession "relatively well," the region still endures a stubbornly high unemployment rate and a poverty rate of about 8 percent. more ›

So far in 2011, there have been 100 homicides in the District. That's 17 percent fewer killings than 2010. Of course, the number of murders alone don't fully define broader crime trends in the District. more ›

There's no doubt that Washington has always been a city which loves its booze -- but that's even more true today, as research shows that people in America are drinking more alcohol than they have in decades. more ›

While the city's homicide rate gets most of the attention as we enter the homestretch of 2011, the frequency of other crimes is certainly worth keeping an eye on. Take robbery, for example. more ›

UPDATE (2:55 p.m.): The statistic regarding student suicide was so startling, we inquired with DCPS for further context. more ›

Did you miss last night's All-Star Game? If so, you missed lone Nationals representative Tyler Clippard getting the official win as the National League took down their American League counterparts, 5-1. more ›

Today, the D.C. Council's Committee on the Judiciary is holding a hearing on the city's issues with Breathalyzers. If you'll recall, the city's stopped using the alcohol monitors in February after it was discovered that they had been poorly calibrated for years. more ›

The front page of yesterday's D.C. Examiner was as loud as it was shocking: "Violent crimes by teens soar in D.C.: Homicide, rape, assault up 10 percent." Agggh! You afraid yet? If not, maybe you should be -- summer break is but a few weeks away, meaning that we're in for a violent, bloody few months, right? Well, maybe not. more ›

If anyone was hoping that the latest iteration of the National Survey of Family Growth -- a measure of the sex lives of American citizens conducted by the federal government -- would clear anything up, well, you're in for a disappointment. So what stats can we pick at? Well, it appears as if something's going on between the ages of 24 and 25 in this country: more than a quarter of men and women aged 15-24 said they'd never had sexual contact, but in the 25-44 group, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who hadn't had intercourse. Let's see, what else? Well, 44 percent of men age 25-44 report having had anal sex, which is probably a bit higher than you'd guess. Hmm, what else -- oh, and here's a good one: 13 percent of women and 5 percent of men reported engaging in some "same-sex sexual behavior," whatever that means. Of course, trying to draw conclusions about a subject as universal and vast as sexual behavior from a group of 13,495 men and women aged 15 to 44 that were questioned several years ago is kind of like trying to put out a blaze with a Super Soaker -- but at least you can't ever accuse DCist of not giving you something to talk about during happy hour. more ›

The District of Columbia Crime Policy Institute released an intriguing brief this morning which claims that a small number of Census blocks in the District account for a large amount of the city's crime. more ›

It's officially been another year of triple-digit homicides in the District of Columbia. Freeman Klopott noticed today that MPD's crime statistics show that, once again, D.C. has surpassed the 100 homicide mark. Attempting to keep D.C. homicides under 100 has been a bit of an obsession for Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier throughout the years; this year, the city at least made it into October before hitting the century mark. Last year, it was still September when the milestone was hit. more ›

Name the most dangerous neighborhood in the District. Go ahead. Did you come up with "L Street SE"? Yeah, neither did we. more ›

It's a story that's been trotted out there quite a bit in recent months: the numbers on homicides in the District of Columbia are really promising right now. The Post's Martin Weil notes this morning that if current trends hold, the District is on pace to end 2010 with 115 homicides, by far the lowest total in several decades. But homicides aren't the only thing to look at when we're talking about crime in the District. We thought we'd take a look at couple of other very basic statistics to see if there was anything of interest. more ›

Buoyed by D.C.'s historically high 12 percent rate, the Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area's unemployment figure rose to 6.9 percent in January 2010, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday. That's a massive increase from the 5.4 percent rate recorded in January 2009. It's barely been a month since many jurisdictions surrounding D.C. saw unemployment figures hovering below the national average -- but this new regional figure certainly has us interested in seeing how the job market will fluctuate in the coming months. more ›

Are you plagued by the worry that all your friends make more money than you? Well Reuters's Patricia Reaney has filed this story to confirm all those fears! The D.C. area has "the nation's highest percentage of 25-34 year-olds making more than $100,000 a year," according to The Nielsen Company. more ›

What constitutes a violent crime? That's the question at the root of this report from the Examiner's Scott McCabe, which notes that an FBI report released on Monday shows that violent crime in the District actually increased by 2.3 percent in 2008, despite D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier's triumphant announcement earlier this year that it had dropped by 5 percent. The FBI and the MPD use different measurements, you see, when it comes to counting violent crimes. "Under the D.C. Code, a punch is considered a simple assault; under the FBI's definition, it's considered an aggravated assault, or a violent crime, D.C. police said." So according to the MPD, if someone punches you in the face and steals your wallet, that's not a violent crime? Or a man beating his wife is not a violent crime? more ›