SC crime statistics Part 1: Violent Crimes in South Carolina

Crime has always been a part of modern society. Statistics provide an interesting look into the culture and can often times tell a story like the rings of a tree. For example, a significant spike in crime, theft in particular, might suggest a period of economic woes. This is the first in a series that will examine crime trends in South Carolina over the past 35 years and help put current trends into perspective as you read about crimes happening across the state. Our first subject will be violent crime which consists of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault and involves a personal confrontation between the perpetrator and the victim.

Statistics come from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and go from 1975 to 2008.

South Carolina’s violent crime rate has increased almost 43% since 1975. However, that number alone can be a bit misleading. In the 10 years prior to 2008, the rate of violent crimes actually decreased by 16.5% and then decreased by 12.7% in the previous decade before that. This suggests in the 14-15 years prior to that, which would have consisted of the years between 1975 and 1989, the violent crime rate was especially high compared to today. So while the rate has increased drastically in the last 35 years, it has actually decreased over the last 20. Crime rates rose quickly from the mid 1980’s to the mid-90’s where they have been dropping ever since.

While South Carolina’s violent crime rate matches national trends, our average rate has been higher than the national average every year since 1975. Rates were relatively close in the 1970’s and into the mid-80’s. However, South  Carolina’s crime rate has been around 50%  higher than the US average in every year  since then. It spiked in 1994 when crimes reached 106.6 people per 10,000. The national average that year was 71.4, but it actually peaked in 1991 and 1992 when the national average was 75.8 per 10,000 people. In 2008, the rate in SC was 72.9 while the national average was 45.5.

While South Carolina is on the more violent side of the country, which SC Counties are most responsible for our reputation?

There’s two ways to look at it: the actual number of crimes and the crime rate. The crime rate is a ratio of crimes compared to the population. It’s a more accurate way of judging.

In 2008, Richland County had the highest number of crimes with 3,606 followed by Charleston and Greenville which had 3,166 each. However, none of them were among the highest crime rates. By far, Dillon County had the highest crime rate at 171.3 per 10,000 people. They were followed by Marlboro County with a rate of 128.6 and Fairfield County with 113.5.  While these three had relatively small numbers of crimes, those numbers were high compared to the population. Percentage wise, you have a higher chance of experiencing a crime in Dillon County than you do in Richland County although Richland had 6 times more crimes than Dillon.

The safest counties, judging by the crime rates, are Edgefield (26.6), Newberry (34.9) and Pickens (35.4). Aiken came in at fifth safest (45.4), Dorchester sixth (47.8), and Berkeley at ninth (50.4).

Murder rates have regularly decreased by 53% since 1975 with a brief spike in the early 1990’s. The percentage of murder victims being a family member of the criminal have actually increased by about 2% in the last 10 years while the murder of stranger has decreased by about 4.5%. The victim being an intimate partner of the victim has decreased 3% while the victim being unknown has increased 5% in the last decade. South Carolina’s murder rate has been higher than the national average every year since 1975 except 1995. Jasper County had the highest murder rate (3.13) in SC while Charleston had the highest number of murders (34) in 2008.

Guns were the preferred weapons of choice for SC murderers, being the item used to kill the victim 66% of the time in 2008. That was followed by the knife which was used about 10% of the time.

Rape rates have been decreasing since the early 90’s. About half of all rape victims were acquaintances in 2008, 16% percent were strangers and about 13% were family members. The majority of victims were between 10-17 years of age (35%) followed by 18-24 year olds (25%). South Carolina’s rape rate has been higher than the national average every years since 1982. Jasper County had the highest rape of rate in the State in 2008. Charleston had the highest number at 184 and the sixth highest rate at 5.3. Every County had at least one rape.

The Robbery rate has increased by 33.5% since 1975. It actually peaked in the mid 1990’s and started to decline. However, rates began to increase again in 2004.

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