WASHINGTON (AP) - A Justice Department study of violent crime among different races shows an alarmingly high rate of violence against American Indians, while crime against other groups has fallen.

Indians were twice as likely to be victims of violent crime than blacks, whites or Asians. Indian women were victimized by their partners more than twice as often as black women but the incidents were reported less often than among blacks, according to the study, released Sunday by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The study, which looked at statistics for rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault and simple assault, showed that crime against blacks, whites and Hispanics fell significantly during the study period - 1993 through 1998.

Violent crime against blacks fell 38 percent; for whites the decline was 29 percent, and it dropped 45 percent for Hispanics.

The drops are in keeping with an eight-year nationwide decline in major crimes.

But violence against Indians in 1998 was about the same as it was in 1993, the study found. In 1998, 110 Indians out of 1,000 were victims of violence.

The rate for blacks was 43 per 1,000; for whites it was 38 per 1,000 and for Asians, 22 per 1,000.

Criminologists say the high rate of violence among Indians can be attributed to the combination of poverty and lack of access to social services.

"The staggeringly high rates of violence, especially domestic violence, reflects the impact of severe poverty, alcoholism and lack of access to social and legal support systems and education," said James Alan Fox, criminal justice professor at Northeastern University.

The study also showed that:

-Violent crime against whites and blacks was committed primarily by members of the victims' own race.

-While the rate of violent crimes against blacks and whites has narrowed, blacks were murdered at far higher rates than other people.

-Blacks and Asians were more likely to face an offender with a firearm than whites and American Indians.

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