The conventional wisdom is that crime rises during hard economic times. Well, either that's wrong or the economy isn't really that bad, according to new preliminary national crime statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In fact, U.S. crime rates in 2011 hit their lowest levels since World War II, University of Maryland criminologist Gary LaFree tells MSNBC. Experts cite a number of possible reasons for the prolonged drop in crime, including better policing techniques, an aging population, and, somewhat counterintuitively, the unifying effects of the recession. Here's a look at our Leave It to Beaver–level crime rates, by the numbers:
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