The National Crime Victimization Survey reports that America's violent crime rate jumped up 15 percent in 2012. Statistician Tyson Mclean works as the Statistical Analysis Center Director at the Montana Board of Crime Control and he said Montana's crime rate is up too.

"We have increases in both our Violent Crime Index and Property Crime Index," Mclean said. "After 2003, the violent crime rates definitely dropped until 2011, and in 2011, the violent crime increased by 3 percent compared to 2010, and increased again in 2012 by an additional 5 percent."

The 5percent jump in Montana's violent crime rate was caused by 240 more violent crimes than in 2011.

"To give you an idea of the shear number of crimes, in 2011, we had 2,667 which increased to 2,827 in 2012," Mclean said. "We are only talking about homicides, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault."

Mclean said Hill, Yellowstone, and Cascade counties regularly have the highest violent crime rates in the state and said that crime is up across the board in the Bakken region.

Tyson Mclean:

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