RICHMOND — Virginia State Police (VSP) announced on Tuesday that the Commonwealth’s official report on local and statewide crime figures for 2023 is now available online at the VSP CJIS Data Analysis & Reporting Team page.
The report, Crime in Virginia, provides precise rates and occurrences of crimes committed in towns, cities, and counties across the Commonwealth, according to the state police. The report breaks down criminal offenses and arrests by reporting agency.
Per state mandate, the Department of Virginia State Police collects crime data from participating state and local police departments and sheriff’s offices and compiles that data into an annual report that serves as the official crime statistics for the Commonwealth. That data is then transmitted to the FBI for inclusion in its annual report, Crime in the United States, and published on the FBI Crime Data Explorer website.
This year’s report shows Virginia’s violent crime rate increased in 2023 to 207.5 crimes (per 100,000 population) from 203 in 2022. According to VSP, 20,824 violent crime offenses were reported in 2023 compared to 20,549 violent crime offenses reported in 2022, representing a 1.3% increase.
Violent crime includes the offenses of murder, forcible sex offenses, robbery, and aggravated assault, the department noted.
State police highlighted the following data from the report:
- Although the violent crime rate increased slightly, the number of reported homicides decreased significantly from 621 to 520 (16.3%).
- Motor vehicle thefts and attempted thefts increased 8% compared to 2022.
- Drug arrests increased overall by 18%.
- Burglary decreased by 3.3% between 2022 and 2023.
- Fraud offenses increased by 2.7% compared to 2022.
- Of the known weapons reported for violent crimes, firearms were used in 83.3% of homicides and 43.1% of robberies.
- There were 271 hate crime incidents involving 275 offenses, with 325 individual victims reported by contributing agencies in 2023.
- Most hate crimes (66.4%) were racially or ethnically motivated.
According to state police, the report employs an Incident-Based Reporting (IBR) method for calculating offenses for greater accuracy. IBR divides crimes into two categories: Group A for serious offenses, including violent crimes, property crimes, and drug offenses, and Group B for less serious offenses such as trespassing, disorderly conduct, and liquor law violations.
