Inside the city of Santa Clarita, crime is up 0.8 percent on the year. In areas of the SCV outside of city limits, it’s up 32.5 percent.
The biggest increases in the unincorporated SCV have come in larceny (up 55.6 percent on a per-capita basis), robbery (up 38.2 percent per capita), arson (up 36.4 percent per capita), and grand theft auto (up 33.5 percent per capita).
By comparison, the city’s crime rate dropped in each of those categories. Robberies in the city dropped a full 36.1 percent per capita; arson is down by 23.5 percent; grand theft auto is down by 11.4 percent and larceny was down by 5.5 percent.
It’s a flip from 2012, when the unincorporated territories’ crime rate was lower than the city’s.
One category of property crime, however, has grown faster in the city so far in 2013 than in the unincorporated SCV. Burglaries are up by a whopping 44 percent in the city, and by just 2.2 percent in the county-SCV.
There’s a “but.”
Those numbers are the crime rate increase – how much it’s changed from one year to the next.
City residents are still more likely to become victims than are unincorporated residents.
While robberies in the county-SCV are up, they’re only up to 1.05 per 10,000 residents. In the city, 1.52 of every 10,000 residents have been robbed.
The same is true with burglary, larceny, grand theft auto and arson. The city’s per-capita numbers are higher.
The numbers for aggravated assault have improved in both the city and count-SCV: down 14.9 percent (to 4 per 10,000 residents), and down 16 percent (to 3 per 10,000 residents) in the county.
Rapes were way up in 2012, and they’re on the road to improvement. The rate has dropped by 5.3 percent in the city so far this year (to 0.53 per 10,000 residents) and by 31.8 percent in the county (to 0.15 per 10,000 residents).
The raw numbers provide a better picture of the number of rapes: There were 11 through May 31 in the city, versus 10 by the same time last year. The reason the rate improved in spite of the number being higher is the gain in population, primarily through annexation. By comparison, in the county-SCV, there was just one reported rape as of May 31, compared to two by the same time last year.
Finally, one murder was on the books in Santa Clarita through May 31, and none in the county, for a statistical change of zero.
Crime Rate Even in City, Up in Unincorporated SCV
