Report: Alaska’s 2018 violent crime rate highest in 5 years

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Alaska had its highest violent crime rate in five years in 2018, with rises in rapes and aggravated assault helping drive the increase. But the state’s overall crime rate dropped, with property crimes down.

The Alaska Department of Public Safety’s annual report on crime is based on information supplied by law enforcement agencies representing 99.5% of the state’s population. It was made public Monday, as was the FBI’s national report on crime that uses the same information, the Anchorage Daily News reported .

The Alaska report said 1,100 rapes and 88 attempted rapes were reported in the state in 2018. The number of reported rapes has increased every year since 2014 and the newspaper said that Alaska’s rate of 161.9 sexual assaults per 100,000 people is nearly four times the national rate.

Alaska’s overall crime rate declined 4.6 per cent while violent crimes increased 3.3%. The most common violent crime reported in Alaska is aggravated assault, followed by rape, the report said.

Property crime decreased but still made up most about 79% of overall crime in Alaska. Violent crime accounted for 21%.

There were 47 homicides in 2018, compared to 62 in 2017. Two-thirds of the homicides last year involved a firearm, which was up from 2017.

The rape data tracks what victims’ advocates have seen, said Keeley Olson, the executive director of the Anchorage group Standing Together Against Rape.

“With all of the media attention to sexual assault in our state as well as the “Me Too” movement all happening, we have to take into consideration that people just have a growing expectation that they will be heard,” Olson said. “I only hope I’m right, that it is not more violence being incurred.”

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Information from: Anchorage Daily News, http://www.adn.com