Long before he started crunching the numbers, Florida State University (FSU) criminologist Bill Bales knew Florida’s crime rate, like that of the nation, had been dropping for years. But it wasn’t until he began analyzing the state’s crime statistics over the last 30 years that he realized just how safe the state has become.
“I was astonished by the consistency of the decline and the magnitude of the decline,” said Bales, of FSU’s College of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
“Somebody should be advertising the fact that the level of safety of citizens and tourists over the last 20 years has improved by 52 percent. It’s been cut in half. That is remarkable.”
A study by Bales and criminologist Alex Piquero of the University of Texas at Dallas found dramatic decreases in overall crime rates from 1991, when Florida’s crime rate peaked, to 2010 in all seven “index crimes” tracked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)— murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft — as well as property crimes.
“It is tremendous news,” Bales said. “Can you imagine if cancer rates had declined by 52 percent and almost consistently every year over 20 years? We would be dancing in the streets.”
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