Major crimes down

By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer

Major offenses in Hawai'i were down slightly in the first six months of this year compared with the same period last year, but violent major crimes rose sharply over the same period, according to the attorney general's semiannual Uniform Crime Report released yesterday.

Violent major crimes in the first six months increased by 11 percent compared with the first half of last year, the report said.

"Any improvement in that area (number of crimes) is very welcome, but the decrease is wholly attributable to the decrease in property crimes," said Paul Perrone, chief statistician of the attorney general's office. "But almost every other category of crime went up statewide. That's the bad news."

Though the numbers are only for six months, Perrone said that if the trend continues, it would end the rising crime trend of the past three years.

"If you look at the two most current periods, the second half of last year and the first half of this year, it does sort of break this consistent upward trend that we've seen," Perrone said. "That's not to say that there won't be a crime spike."

Overall, there were 35,770 major crimes reported in the first half of this year compared with 36,528 in the first half of 2002, a decrease of 2.1 percent. Major crimes cover the eight major felonies: murder, forcible rape, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, motor-vehicle theft, larceny-theft and arson.

Property crime, which accounts for the bulk of major crime in Hawai'i, decreased 2.7 percent, with 34,029 reported incidents in the first six months of this year, compared with 34,958 for the first six months last year.

But violent crime increased sharply. Rapes were up 1.6 percent from 188 in the first half of 2002 to 191. Robbery was up 13.3 percent from 573 to 649. And aggravated assault was up 11.7 percent from 797 to 890.

But the 11 murders were one fewer than the first six months last year.

Hawai'i had the highest rate of larceny theft in the nation last year, but the number of larceny thefts decreased slightly from 24,043 in 2002 to 23,186 for the first six months this year. Burglaries are down 7.4 percent from 6,289 to 5,825 in that time.

Motor-vehicle thefts, however, rose 8.5 percent from 4,626 to 5,018.

Serious crimes committed by juveniles also declined, the attorney general's office said.

The office said the number of arrests of juveniles, the best indication of juvenile crime, was 1,164 in the first six months this year, down 9.1 percent from the 1,281 in the same period last year.

"We're on pace to smash the record low level last year," Perrone said. "It is six years running now that the number of juveniles arrested in the state for serious crimes has dropped like a stone."

The numbers released yesterday also showed that police statewide are solving major crimes at a slightly higher rate in the first six months of 2003 compared to the first half of last year. Police are solving 11.6 percent of major crimes, compared with an 8.4 percent clearance rate for the first six months last year.

The clearance rate for the state in 2002 was 10.5 percent for 75,238 major crimes. The clearance rate for major crimes on O'ahu last year hit a record low of 8.7 percent, according to the Crime in Hawai'i 2002 report from the state attorney general's office.

Reach Peter Boylan at 535-8110 or pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.