Features

California crime up 3.7 percent

The Associated Press
Friday September 06, 2002

SACRAMENTO — Crime in California increased 3.7 percent last year over 2000, the state attorney general said Thursday, though violent crime dropped 0.8 percent over the same period. Total property crime was up 6 percent. 

It’s the second consecutive increase after historic declines in the 1990s. 

The arrest rate dropped by 2.3 percent per 100,000 population — the 12th consecutive decline.  

Felony arrests among adults dropped 1.7 percent, and by 5.8 percent for juveniles. 

“California is at a crossroads,” Attorney General Bill Lockyer said in releasing the report. “The slight increase in the overall crime rate in 2001, after years of steep decreases, suggests that the long period of impressive annual decreases in crime has ended, at least temporarily.” 

But there’s no consistent trend, Lockyer said: While rates for four of the six major crimes increased, one dropped and one stayed steady. 

Homicides were up 5 percent, robberies up 4.2 percent, burglaries up 2.6 percent and motor vehicle thefts up 10.2 percent, according to the California Crime Index. However, aggravated assaults dropped 3.1 percent and rapes stayed unchanged.