HOUSTON—Statistics released today by the City of Houston indicate that crime levels have dropped to numbers not seen in more than twenty years.

“Total crime,” as defined by city data reported to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting system, stood at 5,561 events per hundred thousand people in 2008. This is a drop of roughly 8 percent from 2007. The highest recent figure, 6,553 events per hundred thousand people, occurred in 2003.

However, incidents of “violent crime” in Houston are up year-to-year. These crimes occurred at a rate of 1,024 per hundred thousand people in 2008, a jump of 2.5 percent from the year before. It is the highest level in Houston since 2005. “Violent crime” includes forcible rape, murder, non-negligent manslaughter, robbery and aggravated assault.

The number of rapes jumped significantly year-over-year. There were 24 rapes per hundred thousand people in 2007, but nearly 32 per hundred thousand in 2008, a 33 percent jump. Aggravated assaults were also up 11 percent.

Crimes committed in December were not included in the data released Wednesday.

A spokesman for Houston Mayor Bill White said that murders dropped 16 percent between 2007 and 2008 – with 294 murders in 2008, and 351 in 2007. That figure includes crimes that occurred during December.