California’s Criminal Justice Statistics Center provides 16 databases containing information on crime. Since 1983, crime in California has gone steadily down after a brief spike in the early 1990s. According to the Crime in California Report released by the California Department of Justice and the Attorney General’s Office, crime decreased in every category from 2009 to 2010.
Crime in California is the most comprehensive report, giving a broad look at crime in the state. This publication reports on the rate of crime per 100,000 citizens. According to Crime in California, which you can find at http://ag.ca.gov/cjsc/publications/candd/cd10/preface.pdf, every category of violent and property crime decreased in 2010. The violent crime rate decreased by 6.9 percent between 2009 and 2010. This is the lowest the violent crime rate has been per 100,000 people in California since 1968.
CA homicide and forcible rape rates have also gone down, although there is no way to know how many rapes go unreported. The aggravated assault rate has been going down since 1992. From 2009 to 2010, the property crime rate went down by 2.7 percent. California motor vehicle theft went down by 7.6 percent, making it the category of property crime with the greatest decrease. Motor vehicle theft was at an all-time high in 1989 and has decreased since then by 62 percent.
Arson in California has gone down 38.9 percent from 2005 to 2010. The 2010 CA total arrest rate declined by 6 percent from 2009: the 2010 rate is 4,559 per 100,000 people, down from 4,849. The arrest rate has declined for both adults and juveniles. The California total felony arrest rate has declined for five years in a row, and the misdemeanor arrest rate has gone down two years in a row. While the violent and property offense arrest rates have gone down by 7.2 and 6.5 percents, the drug offense rate went up one percent.
Despite the decrease in crime in California, some Californians are more likely to fall victim to crime than others, according to the Crime in California Questions report. Young men are the most likely to fall victim to crime, followed by women and the elderly. California teenagers are the most susceptible victims of violence and personal theft. CA blacks are 30 percent more like to fall victim to crime than whites, and victims and perpetrators of crime are likely to be the same race—this is true in 75 percent of all violent crimes.
The California Criminal Justice Statistics Center releases many other reports that you can view at this website: http://ag.ca.gov/cjsc/pubs.php. The following reports are published by the Center:
- Anti-Reproductive-Rights in California
- Concealable Firearms Charges
- Crime in California
- Crime in California Report
- Crime in California Advance Release
- Crime in California and the United States
- Crime in Urban and Rural California
- Crimes Committed Against Homeless Persons
- Criminal Justice Profiles
- Death In Custody
- Felons and Others Arrested for Firearms Possession
- Hate Crime in California
- Homicide in California
- Juvenile Justice in California
- Preliminary Report Crime In Selected California Jurisdictions
- Reproductive Rights Law Enforcement Act