California Crime Statistics for National Crime Victims’ Rights Week 2022

Apr 11, 2022

Since 1981, National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (NCVRW) has challenged the nation to confront and remove barriers to achieving justice for all victims of crime, according to a U.S. Government website.

The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) announced that the 2022 NCVRW theme is:

Rights, Access, Equity, for All Victims
According to the OVC, this year’s theme underscores the importance of helping crime survivors find their justice through:

• Enforcing victims’ rights
• Expanding access to services
• Ensuring equity and inclusion for all

National Crime Victims’ Rights Week represents an annual event aimed at highlighting the importance of crime survivors as well as the countless service providers and first responders who work tirelessly in support of them.

Dordulian Law Group (DLG) is dedicated to supporting victims of crime and their families. Our founder and president, Sam Dordulian, is a former sex crimes prosecutor and Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles County. Additionally, our Of counsel, Kathy Cady, is a former Deputy District Attorney for L.A. County as well as a fierce advocate for victims of crime.

Together with the OVC, Dordulian and Cady are working to raise awareness of victims’ rights and services during NCVRW, as well as highlight programs, celebrate progress achieved, and honor crime victims and the professionals who serve them.

To search for a National Crime Victims’ Rights Week 2022 event in your area, visit the OVC events page.

Crime Tourism in Southern California

George Gascon’s 2020 election to the position of District Attorney for Los Angeles County has led to various reforms – many of which are viewed as sweeping and having a direct impact on the current crime trends in Southern California.

‘Crime tourism‘ is a term that has been used by law enforcement and in the media recently, often in reference to burglary crews from South America traveling to affluent California communities to commit crimes.

In March, ABC 7 reported on a burglary crew believed to be from South America targeting a luxury home in Northern California after surveillance video was released by Hillsborough police which captured the crime. “It’s just one in a series of crimes involving burglars from out of the country, hitting homes in affluent communities up and down the state,” the ABC 7 report noted.

“This is crime tourism. They’re coming here for the purpose of targeting neighborhoods,” Commander Erik Buschow of the Ventura Sheriff’s Office said to ABC 7. “Specifically vehicles, homes. Not violent crimes, but they’re going after the big bucks.”

The report also referenced an incident occurring earlier in March, when the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office arrested a four-man crew that robbed a home in a Camarillo, California, neighborhood.

Sheriff’s deputies reportedly spotted the getaway car involved in the Camarillo heist and gave chase all the way into Los Angeles. LAPD helped out in arresting the suspects, according to ABC 7.

Investigators say the tourist crime crews will often wait for the homeowners to leave before moving in.

“They target homes that back up to golf courses and open space,” Buschow said to ABC 7. “And they’ll literally stand in the bushes and watch and when people leave, sometimes it’s a two-hour window, they’ll go out to dinner or something like that – they’ll go in and pounce.”

According to Ventura County sheriff’s investigators, most of the “tourist burglary crews” are from Chile, ABC 7 reported.

Has Crime Increased in California? Latest 2020/2021 Statistics

The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) has confirmed the following 2021 California crime statistics:

• Preliminary data from four of California’s major cities – Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, and San Francisco – show increases in both property and violent crime numbers in 2021. “In particular, the troubling increase in homicides that we saw in 2020 appears to continue – homicides in these cities were up by about 17% in 2021,” the PPIC noted.
• An increase in property crime in 2021, driven by car break-ins and auto thefts, returned property crime numbers close to pre-pandemic numbers. “The need to continue monitoring crime trends, investigating underlying causes, and identifying effective solutions remains high,” the PPIC states on its website.

Additionally, data provided by the PPIC confirms that while California’s violent crime rate had “decreased somewhat in 2020,” both homicides and aggravated assaults had increased. Statistics on crime provided by the PPIC further illustrate this:

• California’s violent crime rate decreased by 0.5% to 428 per 100,000 residents between 2019 and 2020, an unprecedented period marked by the global COVID-19 pandemic. This change was driven by declines in robberies (14.9%) and rape (9.5%).
• Despite upticks in 2012 and from 2015 to 2017, the 2020 statewide violent crime rate was 2.6% below what it was in 2010, before California embarked on significant criminal justice reforms, and comparable to levels in the late 1960s. For 2020, California’s violent crime rate ranked 16th nationwide and was higher than the national rate of 387 per 100,000 residents.
• While robbery and rape decreased, homicides increased by 30% and aggravated assaults went up by 7.5%. In 2020, 65% of reported violent crimes in California were aggravated assaults, 26% were robberies, 8% were rapes, and 1% were homicides.

Furthermore, CalMatters, a non-profit, non-partisan newsroom “committed to California politics and policy,” recently released data confirming the significant increase in gun deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to CalMatters, the following gun crime statistics for 2020 have been confirmed:

• After three years of a decline, the number of homicides caused by firearms in 2020 hit its highest level in California in at least a decade.
• Statewide, 1,606 people were killed by guns in the first year of pandemic lockdowns, the most recent year for which data is available.
• It wasn’t just the number of people killed. A higher percentage of people were killed by firearms in 2020 than in any year since at least 2011.
• Of those, nearly half were killed by a handgun. The number is almost certainly higher, since 23% of all firearm homicides reported by police did not specify or could not determine the type of firearm used.

But as the PPIC also notes, California crime rates vary “dramatically” by region and category. For example:

• At 274 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2020, the lowest violent crime rate was on the southern coast and border (Imperial, Orange, San Diego, and Ventura Counties), while the Sierra region had the lowest property crime rate, at 1,510 per 100,000 residents.
• The state’s highest rate of violent crime was in the San Joaquin Valley, which had 559 violent incidents per 100,000 residents, while the highest rate of property crime occurred in the San Francisco Bay Area, which had 2,608 property incidents per 100,000 residents.

What Can I Do if I’ve Been the Victim of a Crime?

If you’ve been the victim of a crime – regardless of the severity – it’s strongly recommended that you contact your local law enforcement officials for assistance. In the event of an emergency, always call 911 for immediate aid.

At DLG, we’ve represented numerous crime victims on a pro bono basis since D.A. George Gascon took office in 2021. As former Deputy District Attorneys for Los Angeles County, Sam Dordulian and Kathy Cady have dedicated their careers to helping victims of crime obtain the justice they deserve.

Ready to file a claim and pursue justice through a financial damages award? Our expert attorneys are available online or by phone now.

Whether you’ve been injured in a car accident, victimized by violent crime, or survived a sexual assault, the team of dedicated and proven attorneys at DLG is here to help. Contact us today at 818-322-4056 to learn more about your legal options and potential eligibility to recover a financial damages award.

*To read the op-ed analyzing Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon’s policies from DLG’s founder and president, Sam Dordulian, please click here.