By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ANGELES (AP) --- California’s homicide rate increased nearly 11 percent last year, and other major crimes were also on the rise, the state attorney general said today.
The state’s largest cities and counties reported 1,842 killings in 2002, 179 more than in 2001, according to preliminary figures.
“We must never forget the pain that each of these killings causes for families and communities,” the attorney general, Bill Lockyer, said in announcing the numbers.
Murder rates had dropped in many major cities in the 1990’s, a change attributed partly to the strong economy, a waning of the violent crack cocaine trade and longer prison sentences. In California, the homicide rate decreased by 30 percent from 1996 to 2001.
But in the last few years, major crimes started to increase as the state’s economy dipped. After its largest one-year drop of 14.9 percent in 1999, California’s major crime rate increased by 1 percent in 2000 and 3.7 percent in 2001. In 2002, the number of reported major crimes increased 3.8 percent. Murder, rape, robbery, burglary and vehicle theft figures rose, while aggravated assaults dropped 2.3 percent.
The figures released today were for 78 areas with populations of 100,000 or more, which account for about 65 percent of the state’s crime. The numbers were not adjusted for increases in population.
The crime rate improved in a few California cities. San Diego had 47 reported homicides, a decrease of 6 percent. But Oakland had 108 killings, a 28.6 percent jump. San Francisco’s figure was unchanged at 62 homicides. In Los Angeles, crime was up 1.8 percent and there were 653 homicides, an increase of 11.1 percent. The rest of Los Angeles County saw a 25 percent increase to 135 homicides.
While nowhere near the totals of the 1980’s and early 1990’s, Los Angeles’ homicide total was far higher than New York’s. New York reported 580 homicides in 2002, its lowest figure in 39 years.
Many recent killings in Los Angeles have been linked to gang violence.
“Every day our kids are going to school, stepping over dead bodies,” said LaWanda Hawkins, 47, whose nonprofit group, Justice for Murdered Children, seeks to reduce the number of killings.
Ms. Hawkins said there was a “culture of violence” in some poor areas of the city, in part because overworked police officers had not solved killings.