California Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
Every year the FBI publishes an extensive analysis of crime data in the U.S. The crime data for 2022 was recently published and shows a mixed picture. While violent crimes and homicides decreased slightly from 2021, the rates are still high when compared over the past ten years of 2012-2022.
The rate of violent crimes for the U.S. took a significant upswing in 2020, but has declined since then, although the rate remains high at 380.7 violent crimes per 100,000 people. (For comparison, 2014 had the lowest violent crime rate in the past 10 years at 361.6 per 100,000.) California was an outlier with an increase in overall violent crime in 2022. In fact, California’s overall violent crime rate is at its highest rate since 2008. While murder was slightly down in California, there was a significant increase in aggravated assault, which likely contributed to California’s overall violent crime statistics.
Homicides nationwide saw a slight decrease in 2022, although the rate is still high as compared to the years 2012-2019. In 2020 and 2021, homicides increased from 5.1 per 100,000 people in 2019 to 6.5 and 6.8 in 2020 and 2021 respectively. The 2022 rate saw a slight decrease to 6.3. California followed this trend with a 5% decrease in homicides in 2022.
Some interesting nationwide trends:
Robbery has declined considerably in the last 10 years. In 2012, the rate was 113.1 per 100,000 people. It has declined since. In 2022, the rate was 66.1. That is almost half of what it was 10 years ago.
Property crimes have also declined significantly, although showing a slight increase in 2022. In 2012 the rate of property crime was 2,868 per 100,000 people; in 2022, the rate was 1,954.
Burglary has experienced a massive decrease. In 2012, the rate was 672 per 100,000. During the ensuing years the rate made a steady decline. Burglary rates for 2022 stood at 270 per 100,000. That is significant and one needs to wonder what has caused this.
Larceny/theft has also been on the decline from 1,965 per 100,000 in 2012 to 1,402 in 2022, which is a small increase from 2021 when the rate stood at 1,305.
Compare these crimes to motor vehicle theft. That crime has had a significant upswing. In 2012, there were 230 motor vehicle thefts per 100,000 persons (dropping to an even lower 215 per 100,000 in 2014), but since 2019, there has been a sizeable upswing in motor vehicle thefts, with the rate for 2022 standing at 283 per 100,000.
The other violent crimes profiled on the FBI data did not show significant variations over the 10 year period.
Surprising data:
Men committed 77 percent of all violent crimes, but women were almost 50 percent of the victims.
Twenty-six percent of all homicides were committed by “personal weapons,” which means hands, fists, feet, etc. That should surprise everyone.
Thirty-two percent of all homicides were committed by a gun (which includes all firearms).
Almost 50% of homicides were committed in a residence.
If you are interested in crime trends, the FBI Crime Data Explorer is an interesting read. The data above was taken from this publication, which can be found at https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend.
Orange County criminal defense attorney William Weinberg offers a complimentary consultation to review your criminal matter. You can contact him at his Irvine office at 949-474-8008 or by emailing him at bill@williamweinberg.com.