Edgefield County Has Lowest Violent Crime Rate in SC

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The Edgefield County Sheriff’s Office issued a press release in which they highlighted a recent report by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division that ranks Edgefield County has having the lowest violent crime rate of all 46 counties in SC.  The 2010 edition of  Crime in South Carolina uses the most recently available data based on incident reports submitted to SLED by state and local law enforcement agencies to rank each individual county within the state on a number of different criminal categories.  The report also uses national numbers to show how the state as a whole is fairing in each of these categories.

In 2010, the violent crime rate for SC decreased from the previous year by 9.8%.  Crimes considered violent are identified by SLED as murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault and involve the element of personal confrontation between the victim and the offender.  In 2009, the total number of these such crimes was 30,838 for the state of SC.  That number fell in 2010 to 28,198.  Likewise, the numbers for Edgefield County decreased from 2009 to 2010.  In 2009, 59 cases of violent crimes were reported but that number dropped to 56 in 2010.

Other rankings noted in the Sheriff’s Office’s release were those dealing with individual crimes such as murder, rape, property crime, and juvenile violent crime. (See chart below for categories and rankings.)  In addition to the noted statistics, Edgefield County is also listed in the Top 10 Counties for Solving All Crimes.

In the ECSO’s press release, Sheriff Adell Dobey attributed the falling crime rates to the dedication, training, and efforts of the employees of the ECSO, the community watch program, and the anonymous calls and tips that are made by the citizens of Edgefield County.  It went on to state that Sheriff Dobey feels that an increase in manpower could possibly lead to even lower crime rates in the future.

The full SLED report may be viewed by going to www.sled.sc.gov and clicking on the Crime Reporting and Statistics tab.

Category and Edgefield County Ranking Within All 46 Counties in SC*

Murder – 29
(This ranking based on rate of 1/10,000 people with total population of 25,000 for Edgefield County.)

Rape – 41

Robbery – 42

Property Crime – 44

Aggravated Assault – 46

Breaking & Entering – 40

Larceny – 44

Motor Vehicle Break-ins & Theft – 37

Juvenile Violent Crime – 41

Juvenile Property Crime – 43

*Note- In this report, the higher the ranking from 1-46, the better the score.