Crime in Hawaii, 2015
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Crime Prevention & Justice Assistance Division Research & Statistics Branch CRIME IN HAWAII 2015 A REVIEW OF UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS Crime in Hawaii can be downloaded from the Crime Prevention & Justice Assistance Division web site ag.hawaii.gov/cpja/ In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, P.L. 101-336, this material is available in an altered format, upon request. If you require an altered format, please call the Department of the Attorney General, Crime Prevention and Just ice Assistance Division at (808) 586-1150. TDD: Oahu, 586-1298 ; neighbor islands, 1-877-586-1298. CRIME IN HAWAII 2015 A REVIEW OF UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS Prepared By Lydia Seumanu Fuatagavi Senior Research Analyst and Paul Perrone Chief of Research & Statistics Research & Statistics Branch Crime Prevention & Justice Assistance Division November 2016 Caveats Statistical crime reporting requires a number of rules to count events consistently. Multiple offenses may be committed in most opportunities for crime, and multiple charges may be attached to a single arrest. The statistics presented in this report were collected and compiled using the FBI’s Hierarchy Rule that limits crime counts to only the most serious offense committed within an incident that is constrained by time and place, and limits arrest counts to only the most serious charge per booking. Therefore, some crimes may be underreported, e.g., if the victim is killed in a single- victim robbery situation, only murder is recorded, not the crime of robbery. Further details of the Hierarchy Rule are discussed in Footnote 1 on page 2. The number of reported offenses corresponds to a victim count for only some types of offenses. Violent crimes generally employ the total victim count. Robberies, however, are counted by the incident, regardless of the number of victims. Property crimes also are generally counted by the incident, with the notable exceptions that a burglary is counted for each structure entered, and a motor vehicle theft for each vehicle stolen. Some crimes are inherently difficult to classify. The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) definition of aggravated assault, for example, is complex and has been misinterpreted, resulting in large variations between agencies and between years. These statistics were produced from the operations of Hawaii’s four county police departments. Statistics of prosecutorial, court, and parole board decisions are reported separately, by those agencies. It is strongly cautioned that year-to-year changes based on small numbers of events are likely to result in large percentage changes which typically are not as meaningful as they might appear at first glance. An unappreciated difference in the time period covered by two different sets of statistics can lead to erroneous conclusions regarding underlying relationships. For example, an abrupt change in the “percent of offenses cleared” statistics, which link the volume of arrests to the volume of reported offenses, should be viewed with caution because offenses already reported in previous years may be counted as cleared, by arrest or exceptional means, in the current year. A clearance is further defined in Appendix A. The distinction between resident and de facto population is a most important consideration in viewing Crime in Hawaii. Crime rates are based on the number of crimes per 100,000 residents. De facto population includes the number of persons physically present in the state: residents, tourists, and non-resident military personnel. Crime rates based on de facto population can be significantly different than rates based on resident population. The UCR program uses resident population to calculate crime rates for all states. However, because of Hawaii’s relatively small resident population and large visitor population, crime rates based on resident population are much higher when compared to rates based on the actual number of people in the state. These and other issues surrounding the collection and compilation of crime and arrest data can contribute to the misinterpretation of statistics presented in this report. We welcome the opportunity to address the validity of readers’ interpretations involving these crime statistics. Please feel free to contact us: Research & Statistics Branch Crime Prevention and Justice Assistance Division Department of the Attorney General 235 S. Beretania Street, Suite 401 Tel: (808) 586-1150 Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 Fax: (808) 586-1097 Web: ag.hawaii.gov/cpja/ i ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In 2015, a total of 48,919 Index Crimes* were reported in the State of Hawaii, yielding a rate of 3,417 offenses per 100,000 resident population. The total Index Crime rate in 2015 was 0.3% below the rate reported in 2014, and 24.7% below the rate reported a decade earlier (2006). There were 3,530 violent Index Crimes reported statewide in 2015, yielding a rate of 246.6 offenses per 100,000 residents. Hawaii’s violent Index Crime rate in 2015 was 2.3% more than the rate reported in 2014, and 12.9% below the rate reported in 2006. There were 45,389 property Index Crimes reported statewide in 2015, yielding a rate of 3,171 offenses per 100,000 residents. Hawaii’s property Index Crime rate in 2015 was 0.5% below the rate reported in 2014, and 25.5% below the rate reported in 2006. Other highlights of Crime in Hawaii 2015 include the following: • The rate of reported offenses for two violent Index Crimes decreased in the State of Hawaii in 2015: rape, by 1.9%; and aggravated assault, by 1.6%. The rate of reported offenses for the other two violent Index Crimes increased: murder, by 6.5%; and robbery, by 12.4%. • Rates of reported offenses increased by 1.3% each for two property Index Crime categories: larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft. The rate of reported offenses for burglary decreased by 9.5%. • The rate of reported offenses for arson increased by 66.1% statewide in 2015. • Based on the proportion of arrests (plus cases closed by “exceptional means”) to reported offenses, the statewide clearance rate for total Index Crimes decreased, from 16.2% in 2014 to 15.3% in 2015. • The number of Index Crime arrests fell by 5.0% statewide in 2015. Arrests for violent Index Crimes decreased 8.7%, and arrests for property Index Crimes decreased 3.9%. • Adult arrests comprised 83.0% of all Index Crime arrests in 2015; juvenile arrests accounted for 17.0%. Crime in Hawaii 2015 provides state and county data on the age, gender, and race/ethnicity of arrestees. • The City & County of Honolulu’s total Index Crime rate increased 1.2% in 2015. The violent and property crime rates increased by 6.6% and 0.8%, respectively. The City & County of Honolulu’s rates for murder, rape, and burglary were the lowest in the State of Hawaii, while its robbery rate was the highest. • Hawaii County’s total Index Crime rate decreased 2.8% in 2015; the property crime rate fell 2.1, and the violent crime rate dropped 13.7%. Hawaii County’s crime rates rose for four of the ten Index Crime offenses, with notable increases of 162.3% for murder and 69.4% for arson. Hawaii County reported the lowest robbery and arson rates in the State of Hawaii, and the highest rates for murder, motor vehicle theft, and human trafficking–commercial sex acts. * Including the violent Index Crimes of murder, rape, aggravated assault, robbery, and tracked separately, human trafficking, commercial sex acts and human trafficking, involuntary servitude; the property Index Crimes of burglary, motor vehicle theft, and larceny-theft; and, tracked separately, arson. iii • The total Index Crime rate in Maui County increased 2.3% in 2015; the violent crime rate rose 7.6%, and the property crime rate edged up 1.8%. Maui County’s crime rates increased for six of the ten Index Crime offenses, with a notable increase of 86.4% for arson. Maui County reported the highest statewide rates for total, violent, and property Index Crimes, as well as rape, aggravated assault, and larceny-theft. • The total Index Crime rate in Kauai County decreased 22.7% in 2015. Kauai County’s violent crime rate decreased 26.3%, and the property crime rate dropped 22.4%. Kauai County’s arson rate increased by 828.9% in 2015. Kauai County’s rates for total Index Crime, total violent crime, total property crime, aggravated assault, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft were the lowest in the State of Hawaii, while its rates for burglary and arson were the highest. • Twenty-nine murders were reported statewide in 2015. Males comprised 72.4% of the murder victims and 75.0% of the alleged offenders. One-third (33.3%) of known relationships between murder victims and offenders in 2015 were strangers, while about one-quarter (25.9%) were immediate family members. • Of the 2,992 murders, robberies, and aggravated assaults reported statewide in 2015, 47.1% were committed using strongarm weapons (i.e., hands, fists, and feet); 25.0% with “other” or unknown weapons; 17.3% with knives or other edged weapons; and 10.5% with firearms. • Over $85 million in property value was reported stolen in the State of Hawaii in 2015, up 8.1% from the figure reported in 2014. Of the total value stolen in 2015, 29.5% was recovered, marking an increase from the 25.7% that was recovered in 2014. • No police officers were killed in the line of duty in the State of Hawaii during 2015, but 401 officers were assaulted, yielding a rate of 13.6 assaults per 100 officers. Crime in Hawaii 2015 also provides data on the time of day, type of assignment, and the weapons used in assaults against police officers (see Appendix D). • On October 31, 2015, a total of 2,939 police officers and 826 civilians were employed by the four county police departments, denoting a 0.3% decrease in workforce from the figures reported from October 31, 2014.