KHOU-11’s Lee McGuire reports that the city would like you to know that “total crime” is down in Houston.
Unfortunately, violent crime in Houston is up:
“Total crime,” as defined by city data reported to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting system, stood at 5,561 events per hundred thousand people in 2008. This is a drop of roughly 8 percent from 2007. The highest recent figure, 6,553 events per hundred thousand people, occurred in
However, incidents of “violent crime” in Houston are up year-to-year. These crimes occurred at a rate of 1,024 per hundred thousand people in 2008, a jump of 2.5 percent from the year before. It is the highest level in Houston since 2005. “Violent crime” includes forcible rape, murder, non-negligent manslaughter, robbery and aggravated assault.
However, incidents of “violent crime” in Houston are up year-to-year. These crimes occurred at a rate of 1,024 per hundred thousand people in 2008, a jump of 2.5 percent from the year before. It is the highest level in Houston since 2005. “Violent crime” includes forcible rape, murder, non-negligent manslaughter, robbery and aggravated assault.The number of rapes jumped significantly year-over-year. There were 24 rapes per hundred thousand people in 2007, but nearly 32 per hundred thousand in 2008, a 33 percent jump. Aggravated assaults were also up 11 percent.
Crimes committed in December were not included in the data released Wednesday.
It’s not at all clear that we can even trust these numbers, given the city’s murder reporting shenanigans previously exposed by McGuire’s colleague Mark Greenblatt. But those are the numbers we have, and it’s not good news.
