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By James Robinson

The Charlotte Gazette

Assaults, larceny and theft, narcotic-related offenses and vandalism made up the majority of criminal offenses committed during 2021 in Charlotte County.

The recently released Crime in Virginia report from the Virginia State Police shows there were no murders in the county, and few violent crimes committed last year.

The data, available on the website on the VSP CJIS Data Analysis and Reporting Team page, provides rates and occurrences of crimes committed in cities and counties across the commonwealth.

The numbers show that Charlotte County saw some areas of crime up in 2021, while others dropped in comparison to 2020. The Crime in Virginia report at va.beyond2020. com in the area for localities breaks down offenses into four areas — violent crimes, crimes against person, crimes against property and crimes against society.

Crimes against persons, which include kidnapping/abduction, forcible rape and aggravated assault, dropped to 119 in 2021, compared to 134 in 2020. While forcible rape fell from five cases to three, the number of incidents of aggravated assault remained held steady at nine both years. The report shows the county also saw two cases involving kidnapping/abduction in 2021, while there were none reported the previous year.

Crimes against property led both years’ totals of the four categories used by the Crime in Virginia report. However, the number of cases falling into this group dropped to 180 in 2021, down from the previous year’s total of 219. The number of reported burglary and forgery charges decreased to 18 and seven, down from 2020 totals of 33 and 16, respectively. There was an increase in theft from motor vehicle up at 12 from nine the previous year, larceny up to 68 in 2021 from 65, and motor vehicle theft at 19 last year, nearly double the 2020 total of 10.

Crimes against society saw a dramatic decrease last year, falling to 66 reported offenses, compared with 115 in 2020. Drug/narcotic violations and weapon law violations both declined, from 88 and 21 in 2020 to 56 and 7 in 2021.

Finally, violent crimes had a slight decrease from 19 to 16, with rape cases decreasing from seven to four. Both aggravated assault and robbery remained the same for both years.

Here are the detailed numbers for all four categories and by year in Charlotte County:

CRIMES AGAINST PERSON

2021: Total of 119 — simple assault, 87; intimidation, 16; aggravated assault, nine; forcible rape, three; kidnap/abduction, two; and forcible sodomy and forcible fondling, one each.

2020: Total of 134 — simple assault – 99; intimidation – 18; aggravated assault, nine; forcible rape, five; and forcible sodomy, sexual assault with an object and forcible fondling, one each.

CRIMES AGAINST PROPERTY

2021: Total of 180 — all other larceny, 68; destruction/vandalism, 23; motor vehicle theft, 19; burglary/breaking entering, 18; theft from motor vehicle, 12; false pretenses, 10; forgery, seven; shoplifting, five; credit card fraud, theft from building and theft of motor vehicle parts, four each; robbery, three; wire fraud, identity theft and stolen property offenses, one each.

2020: Total of 219 — larceny (all other), 65; destruction/vandalism, 37; burglary/breaking entering, 33; forgery, 16; false pretenses and theft from building, 15 each; motor vehicle theft, 10; theft from motor vehicle, nine; theft of motor vehicle parts, six; shoplifting, four; credit card fraud and robbery, three each; wire fraud, two; and identity theft, one.

CRIMES AGAINST SOCIETY

2021: Total of 66 — drug/narcotic violations, 56; weapon law violations, seven; and obscene material, one.

2020: Total of 115 — drug/narcotic violations, 88; weapon law violations, 21; drug equipment violation, five; and animal cruelty, one.

VIOLENT CRIMES

2021: Total of 16 — aggravated assault, nine; rape, four; and robbery, three.

2020: Total of 19 — aggravated assault, nine; rape, seven; and robbery, three.

According to the report, the Crime in Virginia database employs an Incident Based Reporting (IBR) method for calculating offenses, thus allowing for greater accuracy. IBR divides crimes into two categories: Group A for serious offenses including violent crimes (murder, forcible sex offenses, robbery and aggravated assault), property crimes and drug offenses, and Group B for what are considered less serious offenses such as trespassing, disorderly conduct, and liquor law violations where an arrest has occurred, according to the VSP release.