Crime in Birmingham: Difference between revisions
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==2009== | ==2009== | ||
Overall crime declined by 10% from 2008 to 2009. Homicide was the category with the biggest percentage drop at | Overall crime declined by 10% from 2008 to 2009. Homicide was the category with the biggest percentage drop at 20.7% (65 vs 82 chargeable homicides reported to the FBI). Violent crime (homicide, robbery, rape, and aggravated assault) dropped 13.5% while property crimes (theft, vehicle theft and burglary) dropped 9.4%. | ||
The rate of 1,237 violent crimes per 100,000 people dropped the city to 19th highest among the 272 cities of more than 100,000 population that provided uniform crime reports to the FBI. The city's murder rate of 28.6 per 100,000 dropped in the rankings, from 5th to 9th, as did the rate of property crimes, from 3rd to 5th. | |||
The following figures were reported for the first 9 months of [[2009]] (an overall 12% drop in crime compared to the same period in 2008): | |||
:* Murders: 47 (-25%) | :* Murders: 47 (-25%) | ||
:* Forcible rapes: 152 (-16%) | :* Forcible rapes: 152 (-16%) | ||
Revision as of 21:42, 25 May 2010
Crime in Birmingham is a primary issue.
The Birmingham Police Department provides semi-annual statistics for various categories of reported crime by precinct. These statistics are forwarded, as "Uniform Crime Reports" to the Federal Bureau of Investigation which compiles an annual publication entitled Crime in the United States. Despite the FBI's disclaimers that UCR data is unsuited to making comparisons between cities, its publications are used by private publishers to generate crime rankings [1].
The 14th Edition of the Congressional Quarterly Press' City Crime Rankings identified Birmingham as the sixth most dangerous city in the United States (while the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area came in at 37th among metro areas).
2009
Overall crime declined by 10% from 2008 to 2009. Homicide was the category with the biggest percentage drop at 20.7% (65 vs 82 chargeable homicides reported to the FBI). Violent crime (homicide, robbery, rape, and aggravated assault) dropped 13.5% while property crimes (theft, vehicle theft and burglary) dropped 9.4%.
The rate of 1,237 violent crimes per 100,000 people dropped the city to 19th highest among the 272 cities of more than 100,000 population that provided uniform crime reports to the FBI. The city's murder rate of 28.6 per 100,000 dropped in the rankings, from 5th to 9th, as did the rate of property crimes, from 3rd to 5th.
The following figures were reported for the first 9 months of 2009 (an overall 12% drop in crime compared to the same period in 2008):
- Murders: 47 (-25%)
- Forcible rapes: 152 (-16%)
- Robberies: 813 (-21%)
- Aggravated assaults: 1,032 (-5%)
- Burglaries: 3,525 (-4%)
- Larcenies/thefts: 8,563 (-11%)
- Auto thefts: 1,163 (-32%)
2008
Crimes reported to the FBI for 2008 included the following (with % change since 2007) [2]:
- Murders: 82 (-4.65%)
- Forcible rapes: 212 (-7.42%)
- Robberies: 1,499 (-6.83%)
- Aggravated assaults: 1,456 (+4.29%)
- Burglaries: 5,153 (+5.94%)
- Larcenies/thefts: 12,761 (+1.86%)
- Auto thefts: 2,140 (-4.72%)
Birmingham reported clearing 51 of its 82 murders (62%), 76 of its 212 rapes (36%), 650 of 1,499 robberies (43%), 256 of 1,456 assaults (18%), 411 of 5,153 burglaries (8%), 1,312 of 12,761 thefts (10%) and 251 of 2,140 motor vehicle thefts (12%) for an overall clearance rate of 13%.
Birmingham's 2008 homicide rate (35.9 per 100,000) ranked fifth on the FBI's report of cities. The cities with the highest rate were New Orleans, Louisiana; St Louis, Missouri; Baltimore, Maryland and Jackson, Mississippi. The overall rate of violent crime (1,423 per 100,000) put the city at 11th while the rate of property crime (8,784 per 100,000) ranked 3rd.
For the metropolitan area as a whole, Birmingham-Hoover ranked 19th for murder rate (10.1 per 100,000), 32nd for property crime, and 69th for violent crime.
2007
Overall, occurrences of major crimes increased 3% from 2006 to 2007. Robberies increased the most, at 13% (1,609 compared to 1,429) while rape, burglary, theft and auto theft rose slightly. Homicides, in contrast, fell 15% from 2006 (93 in 2007 vs 109 in 2006) and aggravated assaults decreased slightly. When reported to the FBI, only those homicides determined by police and prosecutors to be murder or non-negligent manslaughter are counted. Using that definition, Birmingham experienced 86 murders in 2007 compared to 104 in 2006 (a 17% drop).
Birmingham's 2007 homicide rate (38 per 100,000) ranked sixth on the FBI's report of cities issued on September 15, 2008. The cities with the highest rates were New Orleans, Richmond, Detroit, Baltimore and St Louis. The overall rate of violent crime (1,458 per 100,000) put the city at 19th while the rate of property crime (8,625 per 100,000) ranked 4th behind St Louis and Springfield, Missouri and Little Rock, Arkansas.
Crimes reported to the FBI for 2007 included the following (with % change since 2006) [3]:
- Violent crimes: 3,320 (+4.6%)
- Murders: 86 (-17.3%)
- Forcible rapes: 229 (+4.1%)
- Robberies: 1,609 (+12.6%)
- Aggravated assaults: 1,396 (-1.8%)
- Property crimes: 19,638 (+3.3%)
- Burglaries: 4,864 (+1.1%)
- Larcenies/thefts: 12,528 (+3.4%)
- Auto thefts: 2,246 (+7.9%)
- Arsons: 221 (-3.1%)
In November 2007 the department provided some information broken down by precinct, showing that the eastern and northern sections of the city were seeing that biggest increases while the south and west saw minor decreases in reports of violent crime:
- South Precinct
- "major crimes" January - October (4,319)
- Violent crimes (2,942) down 5%
- Homicides (9)
- Rapes (31)
- Robberies (196)
- Aggravated assaults (108)
- Burglaries (476)
- Thefts (1,812)
- Auto thefts (310) up 10%
- West Precinct
- "major crimes" January - October (5,378)
- Violent crimes, down 3%
- East Precinct
- "major crimes" January - October (5,424)
- Violent crimes, up 16%
- North Precinct
- "major crimes" January - October (3,386)
- Violent crimes, up 8%
During 2007 the Birmingham Police vice and narcotics unit carried out 317 warranted searches and 722 vice operations, leading to 955 felony arrests and 2,052 misdemeanor arrests.
2006
Crimes reported to the FBI for 2006 included the following [4]:
- Violent crimes: 3,175 (-8.6%)
- Murders: 104 (unchanged)
- Forcible rapes: 220 (-9.5%)
- Robberies: 1,429 (unchanged)
- Aggravated assaults: 1,422 (-17.8%)
- Property crimes: 19,007 (+0.4%)
- Burglaries: 4,813 (-2.5%)
- Larcenies/thefts: 12,113 (+1.3%)
- Auto thefts: 2,081 (+2.5%)
- Arsons: 228 (+40.4%)
2005
Crimes reported to the FBI for 2005 included the following [5]:
- Violent crimes: 3,449 (+5.5%)
- Murders: 104 (+43.3%)
- Forcible rapes: 241 (+0.4%)
- Robberies: 1,429 (+4.2%)
- Aggravated assaults: 1,675 (+4.9%)
- Property crimes: 18,923 (-2.8%)
- Burglaries: 4,933 (-4.5%)
- Larcenies/thefts: 11,962 (-0.1%)
- Auto thefts: 2,028 (-15.9%)
- Arsons: 136 (-4.4%)
Homicides increased dramatically, accompanied by more modest upswings in robberies and assaults while most other crime categories saw significant declines.
2004
Crimes reported to the FBI for 2004 included the following [6]:
- Violent crimes: 3,261 (-2.6%)
- Murders: 59 (-44.1%)
- Forcible rapes: 240 (+15.0%)
- Robberies: 1,369 (+1.2%)
- Aggravated assaults: 1,593 (-7.1%)
- Property crimes: 19,447 (-0.7%)
- Burglaries: 5,156 (+15.0%)
- Larcenies/thefts: 11,970 (+0.3%)
- Auto thefts: 2,351 (-19.5%)
- Arsons: 142 (-23.2%)
2003
Crimes reported to the FBI for 2003 included the following [7]:
- Violent crimes: 3,347 (-4.8%)
- Murders: 85 (+23.5%)
- Forcible rapes: 204 (-17.2%)
- Robberies: 1,352 (+12.3%)
- Aggravated assaults: 1,706 (+0.5%)
- Property crimes: 19,574 (-6.6%)
- Burglaries: 4,381 (-0.2%)
- Larcenies/thefts: 11,934 (+2.5%)
- Auto thefts: 2,809 (+27.1%)
- Arsons: 175 (-20.6%)
2002
Crimes reported to the FBI for 2002 included the following [8]:
- Violent crimes: 3,187
- Murders: 65
- Forcible rapes: 239
- Robberies: 1,186
- Aggravated assaults: 1,697
- Property crimes: 18,289
- Burglaries: 4,389
- Larcenies/thefts: 11,640
- Auto thefts: 2,049
- Arsons: 211
1994
- Homicides (135)
- Rapes
- Robberies (nearly 2,000)
- Aggravated assaults (4,237)
- Burglaries
- Thefts (over 16,000)
- Auto thefts (nearly 4,000)
See also
References
- Pelfrey, David (October 4, 2007) "Crime by the numbers." Black & White
- Robinson, Carol (October 10, 2007) "Crime down 5% in South Precinct." Birmingham News
- Norris, Toraine and Jeremy Gray (January 13, 2007) "Crime fight grows in Southside hot spots." Birmingham News
- Robinson, Carol (February 20, 2008) "Crime in Birmingham up in 2007." Birmingham News
- Gray, Jeremy (June 10, 2008) "Birmingham had slight increase in violent crimes in 2007, according to FBI report." Birmingham News
- Robinson, Carol (September 16, 2008) "Birmingham makes FBI Top 10 lists in violent crime, property crime and homicides." Birmingham News
- Robinson, Carol (September 15, 2009) "Mobile 7th, Birmingham 19th in nation in 2008 murder rate." Birmingham News
- Robinson, Carol (November 18, 2009) "Crime in Birmingham down 12% in 2009." Birmingham News
- Robinson, Carol (February 17, 2010) "Crime drops in Birmingham 10 percent." Birmingham News
External links
- Victims of Birmingham Crime on MySpace.com
- CQ Press 2007 Safest City Award