Hawai'i thefts rise 3.6%

By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i residents remain among the nation's most vulnerable to having their cars, TVs, jewelry and other belongings stolen, according to an annual benchmark report released yesterday.

About 1 in 20 people in Hawai'i was the victim of a burglary, theft, auto theft or arson in 2001, said the "Crime in Hawaii" report compiled by the state Department of the Attorney General.

That was a 3.6 percent increase to a property crime rate that was already No. 2 in the nation in 2000; the latest state-by-state rankings won't be available until next month.

Now the good news: Although Hawai'i crime rates edged up for the second year in a row, they're still 26 percent below the peak levels of 1995, and the fourth-lowest since data collection began in 1975.

"There's two important distinctions to be made," said Paul Perrone, chief of research for the Department of the Attorney General. "From a statewide perspective, the numbers look good. Crime for the year 1999 was unusually low, so there was a slight — and expected — increase in crime in 2000 and 2001. But compared to other years, it's still pretty low."

That's consistent with a nationwide trend in declining crime rates over the past decade. But how did Hawai'i become a thieves' paradise?

City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle said he is concerned over the increasing crime rate in the state and on O'ahu over the past two years, and said a lack of prison space and what he called a lenient attitude by local courts on property crimes is partly to blame.

"When you have prison overcrowding, understandably you release the property criminals, and not the murderers and rapists, earlier than expected," Carlisle said. "But the property criminals are not being incarcerated long enough for the rehabilitation they need.

"If you have to ship them to the Mainland to complete the prison time and drug rehabilitation, so be it," he said. "If you let the small problems grow, they may eventually lead to more violent crimes because many are drug-related."

Honolulu Police Maj. Darryl Perry, head of the department's Criminal Investigation Division that deals with property crimes, agrees that many burglaries, thefts and auto thefts are driven by drug users stealing, then selling the goods, to finance their addictions.

Because of the shorter prison terms, "some of the criminals are not completing the mandatory substance-abuse rehab programs, which are usually more effective than the voluntary programs, in my opinion," Perry said. "They're back out on the street and stealing stuff for their habit, and we have to catch them again. It's a vicious cycle that we're trying to resolve."

Perrone said Hawai'i's crime rate may be inflated because while the study accounts for crimes against residents and tourists alike, the crime rate is calculated using resident population only.

"There are a lot of thefts from tourists, but we don't count the de facto population in the study, so it may boost the figures up," Perrone said.

The "Crime in Hawaii" report also shows an all-time low in juvenile crime arrests. The 2,598 juvenile arrests in 2001 marks a 48.6 percent decrease in arrests during a 10-year period.

Sid Rosen of Adult Friends for Youth, a nonprofit organization that focuses on troubled teens and youth gang members, said the decline in juvenile arrests could be linked to decreased gang activity.

"There was a significant decline in gang activity, particularly in the Kalihi area, from 1994 to 1996," Rosen noted, which coincided with the decrease in juvenile arrests on O'ahu around the same period.

Honolulu Police Chief Lee Donohue said his department remains concerned about the large number of property crimes, but notes that overall- and violent-crime figures are lower than they were in 1995.

"While the 2001 crime figures are nearly 4 percent higher than that of 2000, and about 13.5 percent higher than 1999, they are still about 28 percent lower that of 1995," Donohue said.

Donohue said police detectives and officers in the different police districts are working more closely together on certain property crime cases. Other detectives are focusing on career criminal suspects and repeat offenders.

Donohue said the department will continue its partnership with the community through neighborhood security watches and citizen patrols.

Other highlights of the 2001 report:

• Thirty-two murders were reported in Hawai'i, three fewer than in 2000. The breakdown of relationship between victims and offenders includes: acquaintances, 34.4 percent; spouse, 21.9 percent; stranger, 15.6 percent; girlfriend/boyfriend, 15.6 percent; unknown, 9.4 percent; and immediate family, 3.1 percent.
• Overall, violent crime in Hawai'i was up 4.7 percent, with a rate of 255 instances per 100,000 population.
• O'ahu's crime rate increased 3.2 percent with increases in violent crime (up 5.7 percent) and property crime (up 3.1 percent).
• Hawai'i County had an overall increase of 6.3 percent with a 14.5 percent jump in violent crime and 6 percent rise in property crime.
• Property crime on Maui was up 8.7 percent, nearly matching its 8.6 rise in its overall crime rate. Violent crime on the Valley Island was up 4.7 percent.
• Kaua'i was the only county to show a decrease in crime. The overall 10.2 percent drop was marked by drops in violent and property crimes by 34.2 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively.

Advertiser staff writer Rod Ohira contributed to this report.

Reach Scott Ishikawa at sishikawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 535-2429.

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