JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — (Editor's Note: The video above is from a story that originally aired on Dec. 28, 2020.)
For the 50th straight year, the overall crime rate in Florida was down in 2020, according to the Annual Uniform Crime Report released Monday.
Scroll down to view the full report.
While overall crime dropped, violent crimes actually increased between 2019 and 2020 by 2.3%, the report says. It is the first time since 2015 that violent crime increased in the state, according to the report. This was bolstered by a rise in both murder (+14.7%) and aggravated assault (+9.5%).
Rape (-9.3%), robbery (-17%), burglary (-17.8%), larceny (-18.5%) and motor thefts (-2.5%) were all down last year, according to the report.
Overall arrests in Florida were down by more than 25% last year, the report says. However, murder arrests did go up slightly from 2019 (+1.2%).
Domestic violence crimes also went up slightly last year (+1.4%), according to the report. This is partially due to large increases in aggravated stalking (+30.9%) and simple stalking (+116.9%). There was also an increase in aggravated assault (+5.8%) in the domestic violence category.
However, murder (-1.0%), manslaughter (-9.5%) rape (-5.1%) and fondling (-5.9%) in the domestic violence category all decreased, the report says.
Meanwhile, property crime decreased by 17%, according to the report. Overall, property valuing more than $1.2 billion were stolen in Florida last year, the report says. Vehicles and livestock topped the list for the most amount of value stolen. Law enforcement was able to recover $445 million worth of stolen property last year, about 37% of the value stolen.
Story continues below.
While the overall crime rate in Florida per 100,000 people jumped by more than 15%, most counties in the First Coast area saw a decrease in the crime rate per 100,000 people, according to the report.
The following is a list of counties in the First Coast News coverage area and the percentage of change of crime rate per 100,000 people:
- Baker County: +1.5%
- Bradford County: -33.3%
- Clay County: -14.5%
- Columbia County: -9.2%
- Duval County: -9.7%
- Nassau County: -10.5%
- Putnam County: -3.0%
- St. Johns County: -17.5%
- Union County: +3.7%