Crime in Toronto has been generally decreasing over the past decade. Toronto's violent crime rates are extremely low compared to many cities in the US (in 1999, Toronto had 1.3 homicides per 100,000 people compared to Houston's 13.4, Chicago's 15.65 (2004), and Washington, DC's 35.7 (2004)) and comparable to rates in larger European centers, and are low even compared with other Canadian cities.