Ventura’s crime statistics are based on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Uniform Crime Re- porting Program (UCR), defined as the number of crimes committed per 1,000 population. Part I Crimes are comprised of eight offenses, broken down into two categories. Violent crime includes homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault; property crime includes burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson.
The City of Ventura experienced a 13.3% reduction in reported Part I Crime in 2022. Overall, Part I Crimes totaled 2,881, which was 443 fewer offenses than were reported in 2021.
Despite the overall reduction in Part I Crime, violent crime saw a small increase of 2.6% in 2022, with 10 more offenses reported than in the previous year. Aggravated assaults increased 21.7%, with 51 more assaults being reported. There was one homicide in 2022 compared to none in 2021. Sexual assaults had a decrease of 28.6%, with 12 fewer incidents than last year, and robberies decreased by 29.7%.
Property Crime dropped by 15.4%, with reductions in every category except arson when compared to 2021. Burglary dropped by 18.5%. Larceny and vehicle theft saw reductions of 15.8% and 8.1% respectively. Arson showed the only increase, with 2 more arsons reported than the previous year, an increase of 10%.
For 2023 the Ventura Police Department is transitioning away from the traditional UCR (Uniformed Crime Reporting) and implementing NIBRS (National Incident-Based Reporting System) as recommended by the FBI. The UCR system captures crime data based on only eight categories while NIBRS collects data from over 50 categories. The UCR program utilizes a hierarchical system to prioritize and categorize offenses. The hierarchy rule requires that an incident with multiple offenses or charges be narrowed down to a single offense, usually the most serious charge. NIBRS collects more detailed information, provides greater specificity in reporting criminal offenses, and provides more data points for analyzing crime trends. The Ventura Police Department started collecting NIBRS data in July of 2022 and will utilize this format for all future reporting. For more details about NIBRS refer to: https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-helpyou/more-fbi-services-and-information/ucr/nibrs
With this new format, crime rates will look significantly different, and at first glance, crime will appear to have increased significantly. The appearance of increased crime is due to the NIBRS mechanism of data collection and reporting as noted above. These new categories include crimes that existed under the UCR standards; however, under the UCR standards, they were not reported out.
