Report: Murder in Virginia on the rise

By ELISA GLUSHEFSKI
For the Stafford County Sun
Published: June 26, 2008

WOODBRIDGE — Violent crime throughout the state experienced a 2.6 percent decrease last year while reported property crimes dropped less than 1 percent, according to the 2007 Crime in Virginia report released June 20. 

Murder/non-negligent manslaughter was among 11 other serious crimes that increased from 2006 to 2007, according to the report issued by the Virginia State Police.

According to the report, 411 were reported last year compared with 398 in 2006. Still, the rate per 100,000 for that offense remained lower than the 2005 rate.
Additionally, the number of incidents in which those deaths occurred dropped from 362 in 2006 to 353 in 2007, according to Norm Westerberg, program manager of crime reporting for state police.

Embezzlement and drug offenses also rose, while statistics show a decline in 13 other offenses, including robbery and forcible sex.

The 134-page report of crime in Virginia analyzes both violent and property crimes, looking at age, race and gender for offenders and victims, and breaks down adult and juvenile arrests for 36 offenses in the more than 280 jurisdictions that report data to state police.

It also identifies statistics within the statistics, like what if any injuries were sustained and where violent crimes occurred-for example, more homicides happened inside a residence than anywhere else.

Virginia is one of 10 states that employs the Incident Based Reporting method for calculating crime statistics, allowing for greater accuracy, according to Westerberg.

That precision is in slight contrast to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports — a compilation of the Crime in Virginia report along data provided by nearly 17,000 other law enforcement agencies throughout the United States.

For example, a murder and a robbery that occurred in the same incident would be counted separately in the Virginia crime report, while the FBI would count only the most egregious crime, Westerberg said.

“It gives much more detailed and precise info to local state and government agencies as well as to the public as to nature and magnitude of crime in Virginia,” he said.

And the Commonwealth is unlike other states, Westerberg said, in that it requires law enforcement agencies that receive public funding to submit their data to state police — which serves as the “primary collector,” according to a news release about the report.

Crime reports dating back to 1999 — when state police began reporting Uniform Crime in an Incident Based format — can be viewed at http://www.vsp.state.va.us/ Crime_in_Virginia.shtm.

Elisa Glushefski is a staff writer at Media General’s Potomac News & Manassas Journal Messenger.