UNTIL IT SPILLS INTO THE STREETS, Part 1

Type of wound: Fatal Injury, Permanently Disabled, Temporarily Disabled, Broken Bone, Gun/Knife Wounds, Superficial Wounds, Sexual Assault; Weapons Type: Firearm, Cutting/Knife, Hand/Fist, other Weapons.

Through out the U.S. the new year brings new mayors who are tasked by voters with bringing crime rates down.  Along with taking a hardline on crime, increasing economic development, inspiring and supporting community action, educating children, protecting gun rights, and advocating on behalf of the police department, here is something else to consider. 

These data categories are searchable in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s (GBI) Online Crime Statistics Website.  Each number hides the name of a victim or target of a crime- a person, a unique individual, a son or daughter, a husband or wife who was shot, stabbed, sexually assaulted, and/or threatened with such.  Rightly, communities are outraged.     

     

The data indicates that violent crimes committed by family members upon family members or those associated with family are nearly large as or larger than “street crime” depending on where one lives.  This data is from one region but there is little doubt that the numbers are very similar in many communities in the U.S. All raw numbers are from the GBI website.

The Crime Statistics Report lists seven categories.  Four of seven were selected to compare against six of eleven categories from the Family Violence Report.  All categories contain individual incidents perpetrated by an aggressor upon a victim, a unique crime.  This was confirmed in conversation with GBI. Family violence includes present spouse, former spouse, child, parent, stepparent, stepchild, foster child, foster parent, lives in the same household or did, and others associated with the family.

Aggravated assault is an assault with the intent to murder, rob, or rape using a “deadly weapon” or “instrument” that is likely to inflict serious “bodily injury”, GA Code 16-5-21 (2010).  Savannah Metro Police provided separate information on aggravated assault. Of the 572 aggravated assaults prior to November 2015, 21% were domestic- family member upon family member.  When the discussion was expanded to other relatives and known associates, the number nearly tripled, hitting close to 60% of all reported aggravated assaults. 

Sexual assault deserves a special note because it is omitted from this article’s GBI data analysis.  Sexual assault is a crime under GA law; yet, the category does not exist in the searchable Crime Statistics Report. While sexual assault is reported, none of the 414 statewide family-related sexual assaults, 0% are reported as rape.

With those exceptions or limitations, here are some implications from this chart:

Ø  The sum of Intra-family violent crime is nearly as large as the reported sum of Murders, Rapes, Assaults, and Robberies for the State, Bryan County, and Chatham County in the Crime Statistics Report.

Ø  Intra-family violent crime is much greater than the reported sum of Murders, Rapes, Assaults, and Robberies in Effingham or Liberty Counties. 

Ø  The 2014 data show that in both Effingham and Liberty Counties, victims encountered more violence from family than from strangers.

Ø  Records from 2012, 2013, and 2014 show more cases of men as the aggressor than women in all but one category - firearms.  There are some limitations to the Family Violence Report.  For example, gun and knife injuries are listed together.  GBI has a disclaimer that the sex of the aggressor is not always recorded.  However, total incidents where guns were used are broken out separately.  By considering the recorded aggressor and the number of cases involving firearms, men and women are nearly equally recorded as the aggressor in wielding a firearm in violent acts directed intra-family.

   Read Part 2: