NCJ Number
191601
Date Published
December 1999
Length
63 pages
Annotation
This document provides information on crime in the State of Virginia from 1988 to 1998.
Abstract
The two major measures of crime, rates of index offenses reported and arrests made, showed significant reductions in crime between 1988 and 1998. In 1998, the reported violent crime rate in Virginia reached a 10-year low. Localities that had the highest violent crime rates continued to have the highest rates in 1996 to 1998. However, they had seen significant drops in violent crime rates during the last 3-years of that period. Adult and juvenile arrest rates for all major types of violent crime had declined from their higher levels in the early and mid-1990's. Firearms were used in more than two-thirds of the homicides committed between 1988 and 1998. Nearly 50 percent of the violent felony offenders convicted from 1995 to 1997 were under the age of 25. Reported property crime rates declined by 17 percent. Adult and juvenile arrest rates for burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson declined. Unlike offenders convicted for violent felonies, convicted property crime felons were about equally divided between whites and minorities. Arrest rates for drug offenses increased by 60 percent, with most of the increases occurring in 1994 and 1995. Males between the ages of 15 and 24 were disproportionately involved in both narcotics sales and homicides in major urban areas. About 75 percent of persons convicted for a felony drug offense had a prior criminal conviction. During the 1990's, Virginia took major steps to recognize crime victims and to provide victims of crime with important rights and services. Virginia responded to rising crime rates of the late 1980's and early-to-mid-1990's by enacting various major criminal justice initiatives. Among these are an offender DNA databank and an instant criminal record background check system.