was most pronounced in the segregated and impoverished neighbourhoods of big cities, the FBI report found.

Crime was highest in the southern US, the report found.

The murder and manslaughter rate in the region - at 45.9 per 100,000 people - was more than twice as high as in the West, Midwest and Northeast, said the FBI.

Rates of rape, assault and property crime were significantly higher as well.

The FBI data emerged on the day of the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

The report could play into Mr Trump's pitch as the law-and-order candidate.

The Republican last week praised police "stop-and-frisk" tactics, which critics argue unfairly target minorities.

Mrs Clinton has called for stricter gun control to help tackle violence, as well as national guidelines on the use of forceCriminal Law and Procedure 540-541, 543-545 (1957), quoted infra.

It should also be noted that the case of People v Arnett, 239 Mich 123; 214 NW 231 (1927), decided less than three years after Treichel, dispels the notion that the felony-murder rule was abandoned. There, defendant was convicted of second-degree (common law) murder. The killing occurred while defendant was resisting arrest for drunkenness. Defendant asserted at trial that he was trying to throw the gun away when the victim grabbed it, after which it accidentally discharged. In describing these events in its conclusion, the Court stated:
"Edgar Arnett admitted he was intoxicated. He was in a public place. It was the duty of the sheriff, upon view of his intoxication, to arrest him without a warrant. The sheriff did arrest