Despite Rise in SC Murder, Rape Charleston County Rates Decline

South Carolina saw a 21 percent jump in murders and a 7 percent increase in rapes in 2011, bucking a downward trend of the past generation.

In Charleston County though the numbers of both types of crime declined year over year, according to SLED data. In 2010 110 rapes were reported in Charleston County, representing 3.1 occurrences for every 10,000 residents; in 2011 106 rapes were reported in the county, down a tenth of a percentage point to 3 for every 10,000 residents. The murder rate in Charleston County dropped even further, nearly .2 percent from 34 murders in 2010 representing a rate of .97 murders for every 10,000 county residents to 28 murders reported in 2011 for an overall murder rate of .78.

The overall violent crime rate in Charleston County fell 8 percentage points from 2010 to 2011, according to SLED data. The County recorded 1,845 violent crimes in 2011, as opposed to the 2,086 recorded in 2010, dropping from a rate of 59.6 to 51.6.

The other two violent crime categories tracked by state officials, and released Monday for the 2011 calendar year — aggravated assaults and robberies — fell from 2010 to 2011.

Charleston County also saw declines in aggravated assaults and robberies. The county recorded 488 robberies in 2011 for a rate of 13.6 per 10,000 residents, down from 575 for a rate of 16.4 per 10,000 residents in 2010. The county recorded an even larger drop in the rate of aggravated assaults; 1,223 such incidents were reported in 2011 for a rate of 34.2 per 10,000 residents, down from the 1,367 aggravated assaults at a rate of 39 per 10,000 residents recorded in 2010.

In total, violent crimes across the state fell slightly, according to the report, "Crime in South Carolina 2011," produced annually by the State Law Enforcement Division and the S.C. Department of Public Safety.

Violent crimes have been generally declining across the state and nation for the past 40 years.

But there were 322 murders in 2011, up from 265 in 2010. There were 1,666 rapes reported across the state in 2011 — up from 1,556 in 2010. Both the murder rate and rape rate (which factor in statewide population) rose by similar amounts.

Also on the rise in 2011 were the nonviolent crimes tracked by the report — burglaries, larcencies and moter-vehicle thefts.

Click on the map above to see the number of violent crimes — murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults — in each South Carolina county for 2011.