Crime cut

The numbers are in. Violent crime is down in Virginia, according to the annual Crime in Virginia report released on Friday.

The FBI says 2010 showed a 5 percent decrease in violent crime in the state of Virginia. Violent crimes include murder, rape, robbery, and assault. According to the Crime Report, one crime was reported every four minutes and 26 seconds, making a total of 118,496 violent crimes reported in 2010. Statistics show that the month of May had the most murders/deaths (40), while August saw the greatest peak in assaults (830).

Violent crimes happened most frequently on a highway, road, or alley, or in a residence or home. Many offenders were suspected of using alcohol during the offense.

Property crimes also decreased in 2010 by almost three percent, in keeping with the national average. There were 5,680 robberies and attempted robberies. The greatest number of robberies occurred in the month of May, with 528 offenses.

Drug offenses increased by five percent in 2010, breaking the two-year decrease of reported drug offenses. There were 34,500 drug/narcotic arrests, the majority of which were marijuana arrests.

Adult arrests for serious offenses increased by almost five percent.

According to the report, no police officers were killed in line of duty, but there were 1,475 assaults on officers. Most assaults took place while the officer was responding to a "disturbance" call, and the weapon most frequently used was a personal weapon. While there were ten reported broken bones, most officers suffered minor injuries. Most officer assaults took place after four in the afternoon.

While violent crime has been on a downward trend for two years and property crimes have been declining for six years, 2010 saw the biggest drop in crime.

With a 7.5 percent decrease, the south had the biggest overall drop in violent crime.

While the report is labeled preliminary, the final results will be released in the fall.

Conventional wisdom holds that poverty is linked to crime, leading to increases in crime in hard economic times. But James Q. Wilson, author and senior fellow at the Clough Center at Boston College, wrote in a Wall Street Journal essay last weekend that property crime is falling despite the recession, even in cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

He believes the decrease in crime is attributed to several things: more people are in prison than ever before, heavy cocaine usage has gone down, people diligently seek to protect themselves by installing burglar alarms and extra locks, and police focus on lowering crime, not just arresting people.

Wilson writes that another potential reason for reduced crime maybe attributed to lead, as children with lead in their blood are known to be more aggressive. Recent years have banned lead from going into paint and gasoline. Studies have shown that as lead has been banned, crime has gone down.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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