NC SBI's 2023 crime stats are out
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (NC SBI) dropped its 2023 crime stats recently and the numbers are not that great.
The rates are calculated per 100,000 people, which gives a snapshot of overall crime but not a deep dive.
The index crime rate per 100,000 people increased 2.3% in 2023 over 2022. Violent crime dropped just .01% while property crimes rose 2.8%.
Motor vehicle theft (MVT) saw a whopping 38.3% increase.
The 7 of the 15 largest cities in the stats saw increases in overall crime per Table 5 of the report:
Concord +2%
Charlotte, Durham and Raleigh +13%
Greenville 14%
Cary 15%
Wilmington +21%
Looking at the total number of crimes while prioritizing violent crime over property crimes, the top three most crime ridden cities in 2023 based on Table 5's figures are Charlotte, Raleigh, and Greensboro.
1. Charlotte-Mecklenburg: 44,619 total crimes
- 7,055 violent crimes (15.8% of total)
- 37,564 property crimes
- 89 murders, 247 rapes, 1,246 robberies
2. Raleigh: 15,235 total crimes
- 2,581 violent crimes (16.9% of total)
- 12,654 property crimes
- 28 murders, 169 rapes, 424 robberies
3. Greensboro: 13,863 total crimes
- 2,507 violent crimes (18.1% of total)
- 11,356 property crimes
- 74 murders, 74 rapes, 500 robberies
Charlotte ranks first in crime because it has nearly three times more total crime than Raleigh, has the highest number of violent and property crimes and blows away all other cities on the list for the number of MVT's with 7,156. That's 274% more than Durham, the next highest MVT city with 1,913.
Excluding counties that were marked with missing or only partial data, here's a look by county.
The top three with the highest violent crime rates for 2023:
Robeson: 1,425.7 per 100,000
Scotland: 1,122.5 per 100,000
Vance: 893.5 per 100,000
Top 3 counties with largest violent crime rate increases from 2022 to 2023:
Alleghany: +464.8 increase (from 65.0 to 529.8)
Martin: +67.4 increase (from 39.0 to 106.4)
Chowan: +152.1 increase (from 138.6 to 290.7)
Table 6 - County level data
Top 3 counties with highest property crime rates in 2023:
Robeson: 4,535.4 per 100,000
Durham: 3,964.3 per 100,000
Mecklenburg: 3,610.6 per 100,000
Top 3 counties with largest property crime rate increases from 2022 to 2023:
McDowell: +553.5 (78.26%) increase, going from 1,993.6 to 2,547.1
Durham: +758.9 (80.85%) increase, going from 3,205.4 to 3,964.3
Mecklenburg: +416.8 (88.45%) increase, going from 3,193.8 to 3,610.6
Looking at the final set of data in the report (Table 9) and comparing 2014 to 2023 figures, most violent crimes increased significantly and only robbery decreased. The largest increase was in motor vehicle theft (+84.8%). The largest decrease was in burglary (-54.4%).
The percentage changes from 2014 to 2023 in Table 9 for the broad categories:
Total Index Crime -19.2%
Total Violent Crime +27.2%
Total Property Crime -24.4%
The percentage changes for Violent Crime categories:
Murder: +57.3%
Rape: +64.6%
Robbery: -34.9%
Aggravated Assault: +47.9%
The percentage changes for Property Crime categories:
Burglary: -54.4%
Larceny: -19.7%
Motor Vehicle Theft: +84.8%
Arson: -16.7%
More To The Story
Based on news reports and press releases, there have been at least 35 juveniles who have been charged with murder or attempted murder between January and October of this year.
Most of those charged were either 16 or 17 years old but included several 15-year-olds and one 14-year-old. Majority of the murder charges involved the death of another teen, but several are for the murder of an adult.
The breakdown of the 35 includes 32 juveniles charged with murder, 3 with attempted murder, and one with involuntary manslaughter as of 10-22-24.
The most recent addition to these statistics is a 17-year-old charged with attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and possession of a handgun by a minor in Fayetteville related to a shooting near a deli.
Now lets look at what the NC SBI crime stats say about juvenile crime, which has seen alarming increases since the pandemic.
Per Table 7, the top 5 offenses with the largest percentage increases for juveniles under 18 from 2022 to 2023 were mainly property crime related.
MVT: +127% (from 369 to 836)
Forgery: +1100% (from 1 to 12)
Offenses Against Family: +250% (from 2 to 7)
Larceny: +31% (from 848 to 1,107)
Burglary: +29% (from 404 to 521)
Two of the categories above (forgery and offenses against family) show huge jumps but note that those percentages are based on very small crime counts.
The SBI data in Table 8 gives a five year look at juvenile crime from 2014 to 2023. Going back to 2013 and comparing it with 2023, the murder rate has increased around 72%.
For those interested, I compiled the NCSBI’s historical numbers for juveniles under 16 from 2004-2023. The figures in red represent the highest count in each category from 2004-2023.
Point of interest in the above chart, Senate Bill 413, the Juvenile Justice Reinvestment Act, also known as the "Raise the Age" went into effect Dec 1, 2019.
The law’s text is here and a summary here. Read some backstory from 2017 on the pressure campaign that was mounted to get Raise the Age legislation on the books.
Violent juvenile crime subsequently spiked after the pandemic, causing lawmakers to revamp some of the 2019 Raise the Age provisions in House Bill 834.
The key change in the law was requiring cases involving 16- and 17-year-olds charged with violent, high level felonies to be sent automatically to Superior Court. Under the original law, most teen cases started out in juvenile court and district attorneys had to petition to move them to Superior Court.
Governor Roy Cooper vetoed the bill but the General Assembly overrode his veto.
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