The homicide rate in the predominantly black city of Detroit continued a grim upward trend in 2012, hitting its highest peak in nearly two decades

A dwindling population - 706,585 people in 2011, according to the U.S. Census estimate - and the rise in homicides combined to make Detroit’s murder rate among the highest in the nation. Detroit’s total of 411 homicides in 2012, up from 377 the previous year, includes 386 criminal homicides and 25 “justifiable homicides” that included three shootings by police, according to numbers released by the city. The number of criminal homicides increased 12% from 344 in 2011. The total in 2010 was 308. Even as violent crime rates in the United States fell for the fifth consecutive year in 2011, the homicide rate in Detroit rose to a level higher than nearly 40 years ago when the city was known as the Murder Capital.