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What constitutes a violent crime? That's the question at the root of this report from the Examiner's Scott McCabe, which notes that an FBI report released on Monday shows that violent crime in the District actually increased by 2.3 percent in 2008, despite D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier's triumphant announcement earlier this year that it had dropped by 5 percent. The FBI and the MPD use different measurements, you see, when it comes to counting violent crimes. "Under the D.C. Code, a punch is considered a simple assault; under the FBI's definition, it's considered an aggravated assault, or a violent crime, D.C. police said." So according to the MPD, if someone punches you in the face and steals your wallet, that's not a violent crime? Or a man beating his wife is not a violent crime?
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Simple rule: never listen to a police chief's triumphant announcement, no matter what the subject and no matter who the chief.
it's only a crime if they won't admit to it.
like: when did you stop beating your wife, congressman joe wilson?
Let us consider the penchant for DC's Finest to discourage actually reporting a crime in the first place. Is the FBI subject to the same tendency to underreport crimes?
Also, according to MPD, if a guy in a wheelchair rolls up to you and demands your money at shotgun point, that's not a mugging. You willfully gave up your wallet.
Also, be prepared to be pelted with sunflower seeds.
The discrepancy is a little odd, given that the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports actually rely on crime numbers as reported by the United States' thousands of local police departments. But it's not unheard of, because the reason they are called Uniform Crime Reports is that the FBI accounts for different crime definitions in different jurisdictions by applying a uniform standard.
Also, when someone punches you in the face and steals your wallet, two crimes take place: robbery and assault. No matter how many crimes occur in one incidents, the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports only count the most severe one. In this example, the incident would be reported as a robbery, not an assault. DC probably uses a different method.
Actually, the robbery would only be reported if MPD chooses to do so. In the robbery case Monkeyrotica metioned, I can't even find it on MPD's crime map.
The robbery is only reported as a robbery if MPD chooses to, apparently. In the robbery case mentioned above, it's still not showing up on the MPD crime map. And, it's my understanding the police called it a robbery-fear (no weapon shown) instead of a robbery-gun (more serious) even though the suspect clearly displayed a gun.