Crime

In 2006, there was one arrest in South Carolina every 2 minutes, 23 seconds. The 2006 crime rate (number of crimes per 10,000 population) by upstate county is reported in Table 1. Of note is that Spartanburg County has the highest rates of robbery and breaking and entering but the second lowest rate for rape. Overall, of the 11 Upstate counties, Spartanburg County ranks third for crime rate.

Trends for the City of Spartanburg and for all other municipalities / unincorporated areas are illustrated in Figure 1.

In the City of Spartanburg, numbers of index crimes decreased by 1 in 2008 as compared to 2007. Index crimes have declined 22.5% since 1999 and continue to remain 8.3% below the ten year average. Table 3 provides data relative to the numbers of index crimes and crimes by category for the city.

The data demonstrate that numbers of violent crimes in Spartanburg County have also increased annually in the same period of time (Figure 4).

County level data indicate that Charleston County, ranking second, was the only peer county that ranked in the top ten South Carolina counties with the highest delinquency rates for fiscal year 2006 (Table 4).

Although the state as a whole saw a 4% decrease in juvenile cases, Spartanburg County was one of the 22 counties in South Carolina that saw an increase in juvenile cases between 2006-2007 (1,053) and 2007-2008 (1,122). This constituted a 7% increase. Table 5 provides statistical information relative to juvenile cases in Spartanburg with aggregated South Carolina statistics for comparison.

Data for 2007 show that cases filed in General Sessions Court for drug offenses increased 25% from fiscal year 2001 to fiscal year 2007. In Spartanburg County in 2007, there were 1,459 arrests for drug violations and 427 arrests for drug equipment violations. Table 6 provides comparison data by peer county.

Gang Crime

South Carolina has a rapidly-growing gang problem (South Carolina Department of Public Safety Office of Justice Programs,n.d.). Aging gang members continue their affiliation beyond school age, and their criminal involvement escalates as they mature. The majority of the gang-related crime that has been observed in the state thus far relates to drug trafficking and violent crimes associated with drug trafficking. According to the South Carolina Gang Survey, conducted by the University of South Carolina in 2005, law enforcement agencies identified 500 separate gangs in the state. Of these 500 gangs, law enforcement officials identified 157 gangs that included in their name the name of gangs from Los Angeles and Chicago. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, using data provided from the South Carolina Incident Based Reporting

System (SCIBRS), identified a total of 778 gang related criminal incidents in South Carolina for 2006 and 685 gang related criminal incidents in 2005. That represents a 13.5% increase from 2005-2006. Further findings include:

• In 2006, there were five homicides that were reported to SCIBRS as gang-related.

• There were 296 gang-related aggravated assaults, 145 of which were committed by juveniles.

• There were four incidents of rape that involved juvenile gang activity.

• 52% of local law enforcement agencies in South Carolina reported the presence of gangs.

• The Upstate region shows the smallest %age of agencies (38%) reporting the presence of gangs.

• In the Upstate, Greenville, Spartanburg, and York counties each reported the existence of more than 20 gangs.

Research (University of South Carolina, 2006) has consistently revealed that gang members are disproportionately responsible for criminal activity in their communities, particularly with respect to acts of violence. Gangs account for as similar a proportion of violent crime in suburban communities as they do in urban communities.

Although there is no readily available data regarding gang activity in Spartanburg County, news accounts (Peters, 2009) reflect a connection between local crimes and gangs.