Disabled people 50 percent more likely to be crime victims, study says

And people with cognitive disabilities, such as mental retardation or developmental problems, are targeted more frequently than others, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports. (More here from CNN.)

Murder, manslaughter down 3.9 percent in 2008, FBI says

Violent crime overall dropped about 1.9 percent, and property crime declined by 0.8 percent, the bureau says.

Report: Year-to-date crime down 25 percent since 2007

That's according to Chief Corwin's blog, though he notes that homicides and arsons are up. We're still holding at 72 homicides for the year, compared to 54 in 2007 and 65 in 2008.

It's easier to predict weather than crime rates

The New York Times makes a great point in this article: Despite all of the studies, research and predictions of doom, we have almost NO IDEA what causes crime rates to go up or down. Notably, crime is down in most cities, despite the horrible economy and elevated rates of unemployment -- things that, you would think, might lead to more crime.

Better policing has been a key in some cases, but abortion rates, drug use, etc. -- none of it can explain the crime rate.

Despite recession, crime drops in biggest U.S. cities

Including Washington and Los Angeles. A lot of experts were warning communities to brace themselves for a crime wave, but that doesn't appear to be happening. One point of comparison, via the Washington Post?

Criminologists point to the Great Depression in the 1930s as a time of relatively low crime compared with the Roaring Twenties, when the country experienced more violence.

KC homicide count stands at 60

Compared to 56 at the same point last year. Of this year's homicides, 40 percent have been cleared. Add cases from past years that were solved during 2009, and the closure rate is 58 percent. More from KCPD here.

Report: More illegal immigrants equals less crime

That's according to this piece from Reason magazine, which quotes several criminologists who say that El Paso, San Diego and other cities with large illegal-immigrant populations tend to be much safer than other communities. (This is especially remarkable in the case of El Paso, which is directly across the border from Juarez, aka The Mouth Of Hell.)

It's an interesting piece, though they don't talk much about drug-related crime. When they say low crime, it seems like they're mostly talking about violent cases.

Hat Tip: Saw this via Andrew Sullivan!

One, two, three . . . Part 2

Topeka isn't the only city having problems keeping track of crime stats. An analysis by The Los Angeles Times found that the LAPD's online crime map failed to include nearly 40% of serious crimes reported in the city.

The map is designed to help residents determine whether their neighborhoods are safe. This is the second major problem that the paper has found with the public maps.

| Bob Cronkleton

KCK sees nine homicides in eight days

Until last week, KCK was actually on pace to have a pretty quiet year, at least as far as homicides are concerned. (While a year with any murders is too many, the last couple of years, actually, have been less violent than, say, 10 or 12 years ago.) Then came a quadruple homicide on Muncie Drive, followed by a string of other slayings. Making matters worse? Two of the victims were practically babies, ages 3 and 7.

Whenever you have a week like that, people (and reporters) start asking if something unusual is happening. KCK police pulled together a gaggle of reporters yesterday to say that, as far as they can tell, there's no connection. No gang war, no wave of retaliatory killings. Tony Rizzo and Dawn Bormann have a report on the meeting here. One thing that I found interesting:

Kansas City has experienced 55 homicides so far in 2009. But the 21 in Kansas City, Kan., is actually a higher rate per capita based on 2008 U.S. census population estimates — 14.7 homicides per 100,000 residents compared with Kansas City’s 12.2 per 100,000.

KCK homicides stand at 18

That includes the most recent case. At the same point in 2008, KCK had recorded 16 homicides.

KCMO homicide count stands at 53

At the same point last year, that number was 47. About 43 percent of this year's homicides have been solved. When you add cases from previous years that have been solved in 2009, the department says, its clearance rate is 64 percent.

2 KCMO neighborhoods land on national "most dangerous" list

Those two neighborhoods are near 30th and Bales (No. 6 on the list) and 41st and Forest (No. 8). A person's chances of becoming a crime victim there are 1 in 7 and 1 in 8, respectively. This is according to walletpop.com, which explains the methodology here.

More U.S. suspects dying during arrest

The Bureau of Justice Statistics has released new numbers on arrest-related deaths between 2003 and 2006. That type of death has increased 13 percent during the counting period.

The biggest cause is "homicide by law enforcement," though the bureau doesn't say how many of those deaths are justifiable. That subcategory, though, has increased about 19.9 percent between 2003 and 2006.

Hat Tip: Saw this via thecrimereport.org!

KCPD officer-involved shooting was 4th fatal this year

I don't have numbers on all officer-involved shootings, just the fatal ones. Last year, there were five such cases for the entire year. There were six in 2007 and three in 2006.

Nationally, the number of officer-involved fatals had been on the decline for the past decade, though there's been an uptick in the last couple of years. I don't have data for 2008 yet, but the number of justifiable homicides involved cops was 386 in 2006 and 391 in 2007, compared to 347 in 2005.

And, because a lot of people might be curious, here's a list of officers killed feloniously on the job. (As opposed to accidentally.) In 2008, the number was 41 -- a pretty slow year, actually. In 2007, the number was 57, the FBI reports.

KCMO homicide count at 50

That's where the homicide total for KCMO stands right now. At the same point last year, that figure was 46. About 38 percent of this year's homicides have been cleared. Add in homicides from past years that have been solved in 2009, and KCPD puts its clearance rate at 60 percent.

Detroit cops failed to report 100-plus homicides to FBI, prosecutor says

Whoops ...

The U.S. murder capital? New Orleans

The Big Easy even had a 17 percent drop in violent crime last year, but it still claimed the title of highest per-capita murder rate.

Violent crime dropped 2.5 percent in 2008, FBI reports

It's the bureau's preliminary report, so things could theoretically shift once all the data has been sorted. The highlights so far?

• While violent crime was down nationally, cities with 10,000 or fewer residents saw increases in homicides, forcible rapes and other violent crimes.
• Overall, property crime was down again, but it's been going down every year since 2003. The only category where there was a bump? Burglaries.
• This one surprises me: Arson is also down. You'd figure -- in a crap economy that's characterized by a huge amount of foreclosures -- there might be an uptick in people who burned their houses to collect insurance money. (Unless things got so bad that nobody HAD fire insurance ...)

For the serious number people, the statistics are here for your perusal.

Big crime drop in rural JoCo?

The sheriff's office has released a report showing a big decrease in crime, KCTV reports. The study covers DeSoto, Edgerton and the unincorporated parts of the county. (Which is not, traditionally, a beehive of villainy.) Snip:

Assistance calls to the Sheriff's Department between 2007 and 2008 fell by more than 25,000. And they received nearly 4,000 fewer 911 calls. Officials said 2008 also saw impressive drops in DUIs, batteries and drug offenses.

KU has more crime, but less violent crime

From Mara:

Crimes reported on the University of Kansas campus increased in 2008, but violent offenses were down slightly.

It was the just the second time in 10 years that overall crime increased.

The Lawrence campus saw a 9 percent increase in crime, according to statistics released this week by the KU Office of Public Safety. Most of the offenses were burglaries, thefts and criminal damage.

Campus police said that two men — both have been arrested — were responsible for more than 10 percent of the 267 thefts on campus. The men did not work together, police said, but the thefts were from the David A. Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center.

Overall, 723 crimes were reported to campus police in 2008 — 59 more offenses than the 664 crimes reported the previous year. One percent of the 2008 offenses were violent, including one arson, two aggravated assaults and two rapes.

Sex offenders, others added to JoCo Sheriff's crime map

From the JoCo Sheriff: Sex offenders, violent offenders and drug offenders will now be listed on a new mapping system created for Johnson County.  Offenders will be listed by name and mapped by their offense.  Both the offenders’ residence and place of employment or school location will be marked on the mapping system located at http://www.jocosheriff.org/Index.asp?incl=omap  This site will contain information as to the offender’s crime, addresses for their home, employer or school and mugshot.

Lawrence crime dropped 6 percent last year

But homicides, robberies and burglaries all increased, the Journal-World reports.

Serious crime dropped 16 percent last year in KC

From Christine Vendel:

Serious crime reported to Kansas City police declined 16 percent in 2008, to the lowest level in at least 12 years.

Rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and theft declined, according to police officials who presented the year-end data to the Kansas City police board on Tuesday.

Aggravated assaults, which include shootings and stabbings, dropped 30 percent, the largest decline among serious crimes. Motor vehicle theft showed the second largest drop at 28 percent.

The only categories that increased were murder, which jumped 28 percent, and arson, which inched up slightly at one-tenth of a percent. Overall, police officials reported 35,004 serious crimes in 2008, down from 41,870 in 2007.

When the economy sours, blacks and Hispanics are victimized more

That's according to U.S. News. Snip:

"Minorities experience substantially higher rates of violent victimization than non-Latino whites in the United States," researcher Karen Heimer, a University of Iowa sociology professor, said in a news release issued by her school.

"Our study shows that the higher rates of poverty, urban residence and differential age distributions of non-Latino blacks and Latinos help to explain these groups' higher victimization rates."

Columbia saw violent crime drop 36 percent in 2008

But property crimes increased by 18.9 percent.