By Sarah Chayet
OAKLAND, CA – The California Dept. of Justice—in its annual crime report this week—reported that “the violent crime rate — i.e., the number of violent crimes per 100,000 people — increased 3.3 percent from 494.6 in 2022 to 511 in 2023, remaining significantly below California’s historical high of 1,103.9 in 1992.”
A news release from the DOJ announced by California Attorney General Rob Bonta provided the 2023 Homicide in California, Crime in California, Use of Force Incident Reporting, Juvenile Justice in California, and Crime Guns in California statistical reports.
DOJ noted the homicide rate decreased 15.8 percent in 2023, with the most commonly used weapon being firearms. The total arrests for homicides (1,374) saw a 7.5 percent decrease from the previous year.
Property crime was reported by the DOJ to have decreased 1.8 percent, while the total crime arrest rate increased three percent. Criminal justice personnel, defined by DOJ to be full-time officers, legal staff, and investigators, increased by 0.6 percent.
The “Use of Force” category provided by the DOJ is characterized by situations involving firearm discharge by a civilian and/or a law enforcement officer. The report detailed 658 civilians were involved in these kinds of incidents, with 48.5 percent Hispanic, 26.0 percent white, and 18.7 percent Black.
In the Juvenile Justice statistical report, DOJ noted there were 32,047 juvenile arrests, of which 50.1 percent were for felony offenses and 48 percent were for misdemeanors—21,230 juvenile cases were heard by a juvenile court, and over half of these “resulted in juveniles being made wards of the court.”
Crime guns are defined by the DOJ to be “firearms that have been illegally possessed, used in a crime, or suspected to have been used in a crime.”
DOJ reported that about 65 percent of crime guns had “no prior sale” shown in the Automated Firearm System (AFS). This could mean that these firearms were either purchased illegally, said DOJ, or were from somewhere with fewer restrictions than California.
Overall, there were 137,400 crime guns with serial numbers—and 36,000 without—included in the report. These types of weapons were reported by the DOJ to be found in all but one county throughout California.
Attorney General Bonta said, “I encourage local partners and law enforcement to review the data and recommit to taking action. We must continue to act to combat crime and keep our communities safe. While crime rates remain significantly below their historical highs, there is always more work to be done to protect public safety in our communities. To do so, we must have accountability and appropriate consequences for those who break the law.
“Accurate statistics and the data in the annual crime reports are a critical part of calibrating our response, ensuring policymakers and law enforcement are able to make informed decisions,” added Bonta. “At the California Department of Justice, we will continue to use every tool in our toolbox to prevent violence and keep our communities safe.”
What’s different about this 2023 annual report is the ongoing implementation of a new data collection system called California Incident-Based Reporting System (CIBRS), the DOJ explained. Because many reporting agencies are still in the process of making the shift, the DOJ included information found through both new and old methods in their statistical reports.
The intention behind CIBRS is “to collect more in-depth information about specific incidents than previously available in the legacy system that had been in use for decades,” DOJ said in its statement, noting by collecting more in-depth information of specific incidents, DOJ hopes to provide more informative statistics to law enforcement agents and the public.
The DOJ announced more than 600 reporting agencies have transitioned to using the CIBRS method. After making this change, reporting agencies are certified by the DOJ and move forward with CIBRS instead of their previous method.
The DOJ cautioned statistics included in the report may not be an exact representation because of limitations from reporting agencies that could not include a full year of data in their submissions.
