CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Crime ‘Average’ Declines in ‘80s

The California crime index rose 3.4% last year, but for the decade of the 1980s it declined 12.6%, the state Bureau of Criminal Statistics and Special Services announced. The crime index is the average number of times that aggravated assault, motor vehicle theft, willful homicide, forcible rape, robbery and burglary are committed during the year per 100,000 population. The totals were 3,905.5 in 1980 and 3,415.2 in 1989. Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp noted that while crime was dropping from 1980 through 1989, the adult felony arrest rate was rising 52%. Aggravated assault accounted for 60.7% of violent crimes last year, followed by robbery at 34%, forcible rape at 4.2% and willful homicide at 1.1%, the report said. Burglary accounted for 57.5% of property crime and motor vehicle theft for 42.1%.