NCJ Number
220290
Date Published
October 2007
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This report presents findings from an examination of crime trends in various principal cities and other population groups in West Virginia (WV).
Abstract
Crime rates in WV cities have varied directly with population size; crime rates in the six largest cities in WV were on average approximately 3.5 times greater than in the smallest cities between 2002 and 2006. Between 2002 and 2006, mid-size cities with a population over 10,000 experienced the greatest increase in crime rates, from 74.7 crimes per 1,000 residents in 2002 to 88.2 in 2006. Between 2002 and 2006, Charleston's crime rate was consistently higher than crime rates in other principal cities. The cities of Huntington, Morgantown, and Parkersburg each showed an increase in total crime rates over the past 5 years. For any given year between 2002 and 2006, WV's violent crime rate was roughly half that of the Nation. Violent crimes accounted for only 4.1 percent of all offenses reported in WV during 2006. In 2006, violent-crime rates varied significantly across all principal cities, ranging from a high of 8.8 in Charleston to a low of 2.7 in Parkersburg. Nearly two-thirds of all victims of violent crime (62.2 percent) were in a nondomestic relationship with their offender in 2006. Metro and nonmetro county law enforcement agencies were significantly more likely to report victims as being domestically related to their offenders. WV's property-crime rate has steadily increased over the past 5 years, while it has declined in the Nation as a whole. The cities of Charleston, Huntington, and Martinsburg had the highest rates of property crime among principal cities in 2006. Huntington had the highest property crime rate for all six principal cities in 2006. Data sources were the West Virginia State Police, Uniform Crime Reporting Section, and the U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division. 5 tables, 7 figures, and 8 references