With 325 murders reported in New York thus far this year, the city's Police Department said on Friday that the city is moving in the direction of a record low number of murders this year, nearly 457; thereby breaking the earlier low set in 2007, that of 497 murders.

Noting that New York's average of nearly six homicides per 100,000 people is among the lowest homicide figures in the US, the Department officials said that the year-on-year overall crime rate in the city has lowered by almost 40 percent.

The decline in crime is all the more noteworthy given the fact that an increased number of New Yorkers are laid-off, and the cash-strapped city will not be graduating a new group of police cadets this year.

The downslide in New York crime rate has baffled most criminologists who opine that generally crime rises during difficult times!

Commenting on the recently-revealed New York crime figures, Andrew Karmen, a well-known criminologist at the city's John Jay College of Criminal Justice remarked: "I don't have an answer to it. The poor and the unemployed are not fed up, or in despair. They still retain hope that the economy will turn."

Nonetheless, the most probable reasons behind the lowered crime rate this year include a large population of older citizens; different styles of policing; and an increased number of arrests of suspected criminals.