FBI REPORT: VIOLENT CRIME UP LAST YEAR IN LARGE CALIFORNIA CITIES

The FBI Preliminary Crime Report for 2016 indicates that violent crime increased in two-thirds of California’s largest cities. The report tracks crimes committed during the first six months of the previous year in U. S. Cities with populations over 100,000.

Data analysis by the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation found that of the 69 California cities listed in the report, 46 had increased in violent crime last year. Some cities saw increases of more than 50% in crime, including murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. In Los Angeles, violent crime rose 16.8% compared to 2015.

Cities with the largest violent crime increases included Moreno Valley (+66.3%), Burbank (+50.7%), Fremont (+41.6%), El Cajon (+27.8%), Santa Maria (+26.1%), Rialto (+22.7%), Riverside (+22.5%), and Pasadena (+18.1%).

The largest increases in murder were reported in San Jose (+127%), Santa Ana (+116.6%), San Bernardino (+100%), San Diego (+41.1%), and Berkeley (+35%). Rapes increased in many cities, including in Corona (+166%), Fremont (+73.6%), Fairfield (+70.5%), and Elk Grove (+68.4%).

“This data indicates that, in many parts of California, 2016 was another year with major increases in violent crime,” said CJLF President Michael Rushford. “While some academics and politicians will be unable to identify the cause, working and middle class Californians who live in communities where thousands of habitual criminals have been released by the Governor’s Realignment law or left on the streets by Proposition 47 are beginning to understand that they are paying a high price for these misguided laws,” he added.

In 2015, the U. S. Department of Justice reported that violent crime in California increased by 7.6% two and one-half times the national increase.

The FBI Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, January-June, 2016 is available at:
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/preliminary-semiannual-uniform-crime-report-januaryjune-2016

The FBI report Crime in the United States 2015 is available at: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2015/crime-in-the-u.s.-2015