Nearly lost in the hubbub over the DNA decision, the FBI on Monday released its preliminary full-year crime statistics for 2012. (The first-half stats were released in January.) The national data show an uptick in violent crimes (1.2%) and a downtick in property crimes (-0.8%).
Naturally, I was curious to see how California fared relative to the nation as a whole in the first full year of realignment. Not good. The FBI strangely does not give state totals in this report, but it gives numbers for cities over 100,000 population, which covers about half of the population of the state. So I totaled these city numbers for 2012 and compared them with 2011. Crime rates are generally higher in urban areas, of course, but we are dealing with year-to-year differences here, so that factor cancels out.
Unlike the mixed bag in the national numbers, California city crime is up in every category. Not only that, but California city crime increased more than the national figure in every category. Violent crime is up 2.9% compared to 1.2% nationally, but when we focus on the most violent crimes, we see murder up 10.5% v. 1.5% nationally and rape up 6.4% v. a 0.3% drop nationally.
For property crime the difference is even greater, just what you would expect in a state that has decided to coddle its property offenders. Overall, California cities had a 9.7% increase v. a 0.8% drop nationally.
Auto theft is particularly telling, as it is not a "serious" offense (although it is very serious to the victims), and thus the entire category comes under the realignment law. California cities had a staggering 15% increase in auto theft, while the nation as a whole had only a 1.3% increase. I noted the same effect in the first-half data on this blog here.
The evidence continues to mount, confirming what persons of sense knew from the beginning. Realignment is a disaster.
Naturally, I was curious to see how California fared relative to the nation as a whole in the first full year of realignment. Not good. The FBI strangely does not give state totals in this report, but it gives numbers for cities over 100,000 population, which covers about half of the population of the state. So I totaled these city numbers for 2012 and compared them with 2011. Crime rates are generally higher in urban areas, of course, but we are dealing with year-to-year differences here, so that factor cancels out.
Unlike the mixed bag in the national numbers, California city crime is up in every category. Not only that, but California city crime increased more than the national figure in every category. Violent crime is up 2.9% compared to 1.2% nationally, but when we focus on the most violent crimes, we see murder up 10.5% v. 1.5% nationally and rape up 6.4% v. a 0.3% drop nationally.
For property crime the difference is even greater, just what you would expect in a state that has decided to coddle its property offenders. Overall, California cities had a 9.7% increase v. a 0.8% drop nationally.
Auto theft is particularly telling, as it is not a "serious" offense (although it is very serious to the victims), and thus the entire category comes under the realignment law. California cities had a staggering 15% increase in auto theft, while the nation as a whole had only a 1.3% increase. I noted the same effect in the first-half data on this blog here.
The evidence continues to mount, confirming what persons of sense knew from the beginning. Realignment is a disaster.
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