Violent crime increases
Published Feb. 15, 2008
Violent crime rates increased 34 percent in Columbia in 2007, according to the 2007 Local Uniform Crime Report the Columbia Police Department released Wednesday.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, violent crimes are murder, rape, aggravated assault and robbery. In Columbia, murder rates remained static from 2006. But the percentage of all other types of violent crime increased.
The percentage of aggravated assaults reported to the police showed the largest increase: 38 percent. The rates of rape and robbery increased 30 percent and 25 percent, respectively.
According to the MU Police Department, the upward trend of violent crime in Columbia has not been matched on MU’s campus, as the number of aggravated assaults reported to the MUPD fell from 2006 to 2007, while the percentage of robberies stayed the same. One rape was reported to the MUPD in 2007, and none were reported in 2005 or 2006.
Police have been unable to give a comprehensive explanation for the spike in violent crime in Columbia.
“There is no one magic definition,” CPD Capt. Brad Nelson said.
Nelson said several factors, including a “different culture of violence” and drug and alcohol use among younger generations, as well as Columbia’s increasing population, might play in the role in the increase, but nothing has proved to be conclusive.
The CPD’s clearance rate, or the number of crimes that have been solved but have not necessarily generated an arrest or a conviction, is higher than the national average.
In a statement included with the release of the 2007 UCR data, CPD Chief Randy Boehm said the CPD’s clearance rate for violent crime was 63 percent, which trumps the national average of 44 percent.
“We are certainly concerned about the increased crime in our city,” Boehm said in the release. “However it is important to note that we still enjoy a significantly higher clearance rate then the national average.”
According to the FBI’s Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, which reports data from the first half of 2007, the national violent crime rate fell 1.8 percent.
In December, CPD — in response to the increasing crime rates — took part in a multi-agency Violent Crimes Task Force with officers from the MUPD, the FBI, and the Boone County Sheriff’s Department. The task force was disbanded early this January.
The task force made two robbery arrests in December.
Nelson said the CPD does not currently have the resources to form a similar ad hoc alliance.
“The problem is not just a police problem,” Nelson said, “This is a community-wide problem that we all have to work on solving.”
MU sociology professor John Galliher said that it might be easy for the public to blame the police for an increase in violent crime rates, but the extra police attention or an altering of police procedure to focus on violent crime might prove to be futile.
He said police best control violent crime when it is contained to a certain area, or “focus target,” such as a certain bar or a particular neighborhood. Patrolling these locations in such a manner might force violent crime to other areas, he said.
“You can displace it more than you can erase it,” Galliher said.
Like Nelson, Galliher also said the culture of violence in American society might play a role in Columbia’s violent crime numbers.
“This is a hell of a problem,” Galliher said. “Maybe the police know how to deal with this, because I sure as hell don’t.”