California Department of Justice Releases 2010 Crime in California Report

SAN FRANCISCO – The California Department of Justice today released the annual Crime in California report, which shows that the crime rate in every category of violent or property offenses decreased in California in 2010.

This is the fourth year in a row violent crime has decreased in California. In total, the violent crime rate decreased 6.9 percent, reaching its lowest level since 1968, and homicide and forcible rape rates are the lowest since 1966.

The Crime in California report is compiled by the California Department of Justice and is based on data reported by police and sheriff’s departments in all of California’s 58 counties. It presents an overview of the state’s criminal justice system through statistics for reported crimes, arrests and dispositions of adult felony arrests, and law enforcement officers killed or assaulted.

Crime rates have dropped from last year in several category measures, including homicide (-7.8 percent), robbery (-10 percent) and motor vehicle theft (-7.6 percent). Since peaking in 1989, the motor vehicle theft rate has decreased 62 percent.

The total arrest rate is 6 percent lower than last year; both adult and juvenile total arrest rates declined from last year.

The number of juvenile felony arrests has decreased by 11.2 percent in the past year, indicating that efforts to prevent crime at a young age have been successful. Adolescents involved in crime are at a greater risk of becoming offenders and victims as adults.

Continuing with the downward trend, there has also been a decrease in arrests for all types of property offenses across the board, including burglary, theft, and forgery for the third consecutive year.

The one area of increase came in the rate of dangerous drug arrests. Dangerous drugs are methamphetamine, phencyclidine and barbiturates. That number increased for the first time in 5 years by 12.2 percent over last year. Arrests for narcotics, marijuana and other drug offenses continued to decline.

The Crime in California 2010 report and data broken down by county are attached to the electronic version of this release, which can be found at oag.ca.gov.