>Also, is the U.S. Bureau of Justice the best place for stats on violent
>crime?
Yes (for the U.S., of course). James Heartfield already mentioned this with the British stats, but avoid the 'reported to police' stuff and stick with the National Criminal Victimization Survey. Except for murder, the police stats are very unreliable - you've got all kinds of reporting, coverage, and classification problems. The NCVS is pretty consistent over time. There's a very useful historical summary of the major violent crime series at <http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/viort.htm>.
Doug