WBRZ - Baton Rouge

Violent crime rate in the United States is down for the third year in a row, according to the FBI.

The decline last year amounted to 5.5 percent for violent crime and the rate for property crime was down 4.9 percent.

The FBI collected the crime data from more than 13,000 law enforcement agencies around the country.

According to the numbers, all four categories of violent crime declined overall compared to 2008 - robbery, murder, aggravated assault and forcible rape.