For the first time in five years, the violent-crime rate in the U.S. is on the rise, the FBI said.

Murders increased 4.8 percent, part of an overall violent-crime rate increase of 2.5 percent, Fox News reported June 12.
The increase was the largest for a single year since 1991, and experts blamed complacency and the decline of prevention programs and initiatives to put more police on the streets and control the spread of guns.

Significant spikes in murder numbers were seen in Houston, Philadelphia, and Houston. However, murder rates declined in Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York. Officials estimated that there were 16,900 more murder victims in the U.S. in 2005 than in the previous year.

"We see that budgets for policing are being slashed and the federal government has gotten out of that business," said James Alan Fox, a criminal-justice professor at Northeastern University. "Funding for prevention at the federal level and many localities are down and the (National Rifle Association) has renewed strength."

Robberies rose 4.5 percent, while aggravated assault increased 1.9 percent; rapes, however, declined 1.9 percent.

The U.S. violent crime rate peaked in 1992, then declined through about 2000; it has remained relatively stable since then.