Backtracking a link, someone asked what is the source of the data in this chart:

Except for the first five years, 1885 to 1889, the sources are official U.S. Government data, from 1900 to 2011 either the Department of Justice or the FBI. Compare the chart above with the comparatively low resolution Department of Justice chart from the Department of Justice’ Bureau of Justice Statistics National Crime Survey on the right.

The Disaster Center maintains a spreadsheet of FBI crime numbers since 1960 that is current for State and National data, here.

And, for those who would like a table derived entirely from Department of Justice data from 1900 to 1959 which you can compare to the charts above:

Sources for 1899 and before include Census (Statistical Abstract) and academic sources. Except for New York City, American homicide and violent crime rates were comparable to that of the English Midlands at the same period. That is, almost unnoticeable, even to most police departments.

Stranger