Mr Williamsburg, Blogging on Life and Real Estate in Williamsburg and Hampton Roads Virginia

I get a lot of questions about crime from people who are thinking of moving to Hampton Roads or Williamsburg VA. After some research I found this report prepared by the VA State Police that will allow a comparison of crime statistics throughout the state of VA. It’s interesting to note that some of the smaller towns in VA have some of the highest crime rates. It’s also comforting to see the low rates of both James City County and Williamsburg where I reside and work.

Crime is of great concern to all citizens of Virginia. The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is a system of collecting and analyzing crime statistics gathered on selected crimes by participating law enforcement agencies throughout the Commonwealth.  All information in these reports uses an incident based reporting format ( IBR)

The statewide population for this publication (7,769,089) is a 2008 provisional estimate provided by the Weldon Cooper Center For Public Service, University of Virginia. In accordance with the Code of Virginia, the Department of State Police, as the central repository, collects crime information from participating agencies.
The most accurate information available in Virginia is used to generate the statistics contained in this annual report. IBR(  Incident Based Reporting )statistics were originally for police agencies only, but community concern has generated a use by both public and private sources. This use increases yearly. The IBR information has become the primary vehicle used to evaluate levels of criminal activity in jurisdictions throughout Virginia. The participation and cooperation of all agencies making this publication possible is sincerely appreciated. The quality of the program continues to be maintained through their cooperative efforts.

Crime Rates per 100k population in various areas of Virginia 2008

* Hampton Roads, VA MSA region

Statistics are Compiled By Uniform Crime Reporting Section,
Department of  Virginia State Police

While the figures reported in this publication are the most accurate available, it must be remembered that they represent a “snapshot” of incidents reported by local law enforcement agencies as well as follow UCR definitions. As such, it is possible that the number and categorization of offenses may differ when comparing these data with those from individual reporting agencies. If there are concerns with these differences, it is suggested that you contact the agency directly.

You can explore the 2008 UCR crime report for Virginia here

I should add that The FBI, on its web site, recommends against using its data as a ranking for a variety of reasons and does not rank the crime rates for cities. In November 2007, the executive board of the American Society of Criminology (ASC) approved a resolution opposing the development of city crime rankings from FBI Uniform Crime Reports (UCRs). The resolution states the rankings "represent an irresponsible misuse of the data and do groundless harm to many communities" and "work against a key goal of our society, which is a better understanding of crime-related issues by both scientists and the public
Murder is the only statistic that all agencies are required to report. Consequently some agencies do not report all the crimes.

This post was authored by local resident and REALTOR, John Womeldorf.  John is known around town as Mr. Williamsburg, for both his extensive knowledge of the historic triangle, and his expertise in the local real estate market.  His websites, www.MrWilliamsburg.com , and www.WilliamsburgsRealEstate.com were created as  comprehensive resources about living in Williamsburg, with the hopes of selling a house now and again.  You can reach him at 757.236.8136 or John@MrWilliamsburg.com

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