Virginia’s annual crime analysis report now available on VSP website

From VSP: Virginia’s official and only comprehensive report on local and statewide crime figures for 2008 is now available online at the Virginia State Police website, under “Forms & Publications.” The detailed report, titled Crime in Virginia, provides precise rates and occurrences of crimes committed in towns, cities and counties across the Commonwealth. The report […]

May 15, 2009; 9:44 AM • by brenda p

From VSP: Virginia’s official and only comprehensive report on local and statewide crime figures for 2008 is now available online at the Virginia State Police website, under “Forms & Publications.” The detailed report, titled Crime in Virginia, provides precise rates and occurrences of crimes committed in towns, cities and counties across the Commonwealth. The report breaks down criminal offenses by the reporting agency as well as arrests by jurisdiction.

The following 2008 crime trends within Virginia are detailed in the report:

Virginia experienced a decline in violent crime of 4.7 percent compared to 2007; whereas, the FBI reports an estimated nationwide decrease of 3.5 percent for 2008.

While there was a decrease in motor vehicle thefts of 6.6 percent, other property crimes such as larceny, fraud and stolen property offenses showed an increase of 3.6 percent, 4.3 percent, 2.1 percent, respectively.

Unlike previous reporting periods, drug and narcotic offenses showed a decrease of 3.5 percent statewide during this period.

Of the 7,486 robberies and attempted robberies, nearly one-third (32 percent) took place between 8 p.m. and midnight. The days of the week, however, showed little variability. Robberies occurred most often on Saturdays (16 percent) and Fridays (15 percent), but each of the other days of the week accounted for a nearly equal amount (14 percent).

Of the known weapons reported, firearms were the most frequently used in homicides (70 percent) and robberies (61 percent).

August saw the most number of burglaries, while February experienced the least. Most burglaries occurred between 4 p.m. and 5:59 p.m.

For motor vehicle thefts, Friday and Saturday saw the highest number of offenses between 10 p.m. and 11:59 p.m. Over three quarters (76 percent) of the 8,903 automobiles reported stolen were recovered.

The report employs an Incident Based Reporting (IBR) method for calculating offenses, thus allowing for greater accuracy. The IBR divides crimes into two categories: Group A for serious offenses including violent crimes, murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, property crimes and drug offenses; and Group B, less serious offenses including trespassing, disorderly conduct, bad checks and liquor law violations where an arrest has occurred.

For Group A offenses, between 2007 and 2008, adult arrests in Virginia increased 2 percent. Juvenile offense arrests statewide decreased 2.3 percent during the same time period. Crime in Virginia reports that Group B arrests increased 1.1 percent for adults and almost no change among juveniles (.04 percent) from 2007 to 2008. There were a total of 332,330 arrests in 2007 compared to 336,189 arrests in 2008, representing an increase of 1.2 percent.

Per state mandate, the state police serve as the primary collector of crime data from participating Virginia state and local police departments, and sheriff’s offices. The data is collected by the Virginia State Police Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division via an automated system, and then compiled into a concise report for use by law enforcement, elected officials, media and the general public.

May 15, 2009 9:44 AM 0