The California Department of Justice recently released their Homicide in California report for 2016, and it's fascinating stuff, breaking down in painstaking detail who's getting killed, who's doing the killing, and how often we catch those responsible. According to the most recent report, homicides are up and arrests are down, as are the number of people sent to the state's Death Row.
I've uploaded a pdf of the full report for you to read here. Don't be put off when you see that it's 58 pages long: A whole lot of that is the state's data laid out in table form, which you may or may not want to scrutinize. The first three pages of the report lays that data out in a digestible chunk, comparing the state's homicide trends from 2007 to last year. Some interesting numbers to note:
- 1,930: The number of homicides reported in California in 2016, which is a 3.7 percent increase from the 1,861 reported in 2015
- 4.9: The number of homicides CA has per 100,000 residents. That's a 2.1 percent increase from the 4.8 rate reported in 2015
- 83.1: The percent of male victims, making 16.9 percent female victims
- 43.4: The percent of victims identified as Hispanic. 29.5 percent were black, 19.4 percent were white, and 7.8 percent were categorized as "other."
- 48.3: The percent of victims killed by a friend or acquaintance. 32.9 percent were slain by a stranger, 13.4 percent by their spouse, parent, or child.
- 39.0: The percent of homicides where the location was reported that occurred on the street or sidewalk. 23.7 percent occurred in the victim’s residence, and 11.3 percent went down in a residence other than the victim’s.
- 71.9: The percent of homicides by gun.
- 32: In cases where the motive was known, the percent of slayings that were "the result of an unspecified argument." 31 percent were gang-related, 8.0 percent were the result of domestic violence, and 7.0 percent occurred during a rape, robbery, or burglary.
- 1,440: The number of homicide arrests
- 89: The percent of those arrestees who are identified as male. 11 percent were female.
- 42.8: The percent of arrestees identified as Hispanic. 27.8 percent were black, 20.7 percent were white, and 8.6 percent were classified as "other."
- 51.7: The percent of arrestees aged 18-29. 22.6 percent were aged 30-39, 19.4 percent were aged 40 or older, and 6.3 percent were under 18.
- 9: The number of people in CA who were sentenced to death in 2016
- 6: The number of police officers killed in the line of duty in 2016. One female and five males, all shot to death.
The report also notes that in ranking the state's cointies with a population above 100K, Monterey has the highest homicide rate (12.7 slain per 100,000). Napa County has the lowest, with .7 killed per 100,000 residents.
