WASHINGTON – Every type of violent crime fell in 2003 with one notable exception: Murders were up for the fourth straight year, according to an annual FBI report released Monday.

After reaching a low point in 1999 of about 15,500 homicides, the number has crept up steadily since then to more than 16,500 in 2003 – or almost six murders for every 100,000 U.S. residents.

That was a 1.7 percent increase from 2002 and a jump of more than 6 percent since 1999. Still, the latest figure was 29 percent lower than the homicides in 1994.

James Alan Fox, criminal justice professor at Northeastern University, said the recent rise in murders is partly traceable to an upsurge in urban youth gang violence. The FBI report indicates there were 819 juvenile gang killings last year, compared with 580 in 1999.

The 1.4 million total violent crimes reported to law enforcement agencies in 2003 – murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault – marked a 3 percent drop from the year before. Aggravated assaults, which make up two-thirds of all violent crimes, have dropped for 10 straight years.

The FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Reporting Program statistics largely mirror those of other government studies that show crime at historically low levels. The Justice Department’s annual survey of crime victims, released in September, found the nation’s crime rate at its lowest point since such studies began in 1973.

The 2003 FBI report translates to a rate of 475 violent crimes for every 100,000 Americans, a 3.9 percent decrease from the previous year.

Property crimes such as burglary, theft and motor vehicle theft dropped slightly, with the overall total of 10.4 million crimes in 2003 representing a decline of less than 1 percent.

The property crime rate for 2003 was 3,588 crimes per 100,000 Americans, a 1.2 percent decline. Property crime is down 14 percent overall since 1994.

The FBI report is based on crime statistics submitted by 17,000 state and local law enforcement agencies around the country. The report also showed that:

* Violent crime in cities dropped 3.9 percent compared with 2002 and 3.7 percent in less populated areas.

* Excluding traffic stops, law enforcement agencies made 13.6 million arrests in 2003, or about 4,695 arrests for every 100,000 Americans. In 2003, those agencies solved about 46 percent of violent crimes, including about 62 percent of murders.

* Property crimes cost victims about $17 billion last year, including $8.6 billion in motor vehicle thefts.

* There were 7,489 hate crimes reported in 2003, with intimidation and vandalism the most frequent. That is almost identical to the 7,462 hate crimes reported in 2002.

Violent crime

Violent crime in Washington and nationally for 2002 and 2003, including total crime numbers and crime rates per 100,000 people, according to the FBI’s annual crime report. Violent crime includes murder, nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

* Washington

2002: 20,964

345.5 crimes per 100,000 people

2003: 21,276 crimes

347 crimes per 100,000 people

* United States

2002: 1,423,677 crimes

494.1 crimes per 100,000 people

2003: 1,381,259 crimes

475 crimes per 100,000 people