Richmond-region homicides dip in 2011

Following a nationwide trend, the Richmond region saw a notable decline in killings last year, with 11 of the area's 21 localities going homicide-free.

Police departments in the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area collectively recorded 82 homicides in 2011, or 12 percent fewer than the 93 slayings the year before, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch review of area homicide data.

The drop can be attributed largely to decreases in Richmond and Petersburg, which together recorded 11 fewer homicides, combined with five rural localities that saw their killings collectively fall by seven from 2010 to 2011.

Although Richmond accounted for 48 percent of the region's killings, 2011 marked the fourth consecutive year that the city's homicide count was in the 40s or lower.

Richmond had 39 killings in 2011, or five fewer than the year before. Because self-defense, accidental and justifiable killings aren't counted as murders, the city officially reported 37 homicides in 2011 and 41 in 2010.

Of the area's two most populous localities, Henrico and Chesterfield counties recorded small upticks, with 14 and 11 killings, respectively. The numbers were slightly inflated by three police-involved fatal shootings of suspects that were later ruled justifiable.

Overall, 16 of the region's 21 localities reported either no increase or a decrease in killings last year; of those, 11 had no homicides at all.

"The news that homicides are declining holds true in most areas nationwide, and it appears that central Virginia is no different," said Jay Albanese, a criminologist and professor of criminal justice studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. "There's been a few upticks here and there over the last decade, but the downward trend is clear."

The Richmond region's overall homicide count has fallen every year except one from 2004 to 2011, based on regional figures compiled by the newspaper beginning in 2004. That year, the region recorded 148 homicides. The only year-to-year increase occurred in 2010, when the region recorded 93 killings, or 19 percent more than the year before.

Albanese noted several factors that have contributed to the downward trend in killings:

• The younger generation is shrinking due to the aging of the population, and older people are less likely to be offenders or victims of violent crime. For example, the U.S. median age was 32.9 years in 1990, 35.3 years in 2000 and 36.8 years in 2010. "There are fewer crimes of violence as a result," Albanese said.

Citing federal crime data, Albanese noted that 16 percent of all people arrested nationally are under the age of 18, and 44 percent are under 25. He said the age pattern does not vary much by type of crime, with 45 percent of violent crime arrests — including homicide — involving people under 25.

Locally, 17 of the 26 people charged in killings in Chesterfield, Henrico, Hopewell and Petersburg were 25 years old or younger, or 65 percent. The age information provided for Richmond homicide suspects arrested last year was incomplete.

• The risk of homicide has reached a very low level. Albanese cited national health statistics that show health problems and accidents are now far more common causes of death than criminal homicide.

For example, U.S. residents are 30 times more likely to die of a heart attack and 29 times more likely to die of a stroke than to be killed in a homicide.

Additionally, Americans are twice as likely to die in a car accident than in a homicide. In a government report released last week, homicide fell off the list of the nation's top 15 causes of death for the first time in almost half a century.

Last year's regional tally of homicide victims included 69 males, 13 females, 59 blacks, 18 whites, four Hispanics and one Asian.

Sixty-six of the 82 killings, or 80 percent, were by gunfire. Seven were fatally beaten or suffered lethal blunt-force injuries; five were stabbed; two were asphyxiated; and one was fatally burned. The cause of death in one case has yet to be determined.

So far, 66 of last year's killings have been cleared by arrest or the death of the suspect, for a regional clearance rate of 80 percent.

Of the suspects arrested so far, 67 are men, six are women, 59 are black, 12 are white and two Hispanic. Police charged multiple suspects in some homicide cases. Four suspects were fatally shot by police.

The disproportionate number of blacks who were killed declined from 80 percent in 2010 to 76 percent in 2011. But the number of blacks charged in killings increased from 71 percent in 2010 to 80 percent last year.

In Richmond, 82 percent of the city's homicide victims and 90 percent of the identified suspects were black.

"There's a high intercorrelation between socioeconomic status, education and involvement in violence," Albanese said of the racial disparity.

Typically, people with higher incomes and more education are better equipped to deal with major conflicts in their lives in a rational manner, and have access to resources to help them resolve those issues, Albanese said. But "people without education or income often lash out because they're not only angry at the person (they feel wronged them), they're angry at their circumstance."

Richmond Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Learned Barry said the city's reported total of 37 killings last year — the second-lowest number since at least 1970 — offers further validation that Richmond is far less plagued by violence than in years past.

The city averaged more than 80 killings per year from 1971 through 2008. The number peaked at 160 in 1994.

The homicide total plunged from 55 in 2007 to 32 the following year — marking the lowest number since at least 1970. The historically low total of 32 in 2008 had some law-enforcement officials thinking that it was an aberration.

But the numbers have stayed historically low, with Richmond police reporting 39 homicides in 2009, 41 in 2010 and 37 last year.

"This year is the fourth year in a row that we've had 41 or less murders," Barry said. "In 2008, they thought it was a fluke. In reality, this has become the norm. This is very positive for the city of Richmond."

Also in 2011, Richmond recorded the fewest number of violent offenses that the city has reported since at least 1970. Overall major crime, however, was up by 1 percent last year because of spikes in such property crimes as burglary, auto theft and arson.

Richmond police Lt. Emmett Williams credited the Police Department for targeting known violent offenders for arrest, and he also praised the department's focus on trouble-prone areas.

"The Richmond Police Department as a whole did an exceptional job by deploying their police officers in the sectors and areas that showed a propensity for violent crime, including aggravated assaults and robberies," said Williams, acting captain of the Major Crimes Division.

Richmond's reported total of 37 killings in 2011 does not include one killing ruled to be self-defense and another that was determined accidental. Those deaths do not fall under state crime reporting guidelines for homicides.

Of the 2011 killings in which police have determined a motive, they said 11 were slain during robberies, 11 during arguments, two in retaliation, one in self-defense and one an accidental killing.

In neighboring Chesterfield, police investigated 11 killings, one more than 2010, but officially are counting only nine.

That's because police later determined the body of one of the victims was actually just inside the Richmond city line. And in another case that does not fall under state and federal crime reporting guidelines for murder, police fatally shot a county lawyer after he fired on officers during a standoff at his home. His death was ruled a justifiable, self-defense killing.

Five of Chesterfield's killings were the result of an unpredictable domestic incident, which typically is the leading motive for homicide in the county of 319,000.

"These are things that are typically considered outside of law-enforcement control," said Chesterfield police Capt. David Pritchard. "We do try to impact domestic homicides through our work on domestic (assaults). We do try very hard to reduce domestic violence in general."

In one high-profile domestic killing last year, a Fort Lee army captain fatally shot his estranged wife, her new boyfriend and her boyfriend's young son before traveling to Pennsylvania and killing his mother-in-law and then taking his own life.

In Henrico, four of the county's 14 homicides last year have been ruled justifiable killings, including two police-involved shootings and two self-defense killings by civilians.

In July, police fatally shot a jewelry store robber who led them on 36-mile chase and engaged officers in a running gunfight and, two months later, police killed a distraught man who refused commands to drop his weapon and turned it toward officers after shooting himself.

Motives for Henrico's other killings ran the gamut, including anger, jealousy, robbery and revenge.

Only two localities — Hanover and Powhatan counties — recorded killings in the inner ring of localities surrounding Richmond's suburbs, which includes Amelia, Ashland, Charles City, Goochland and New Kent.

To the south, the Tri-Cities region experienced a 28 percent overall drop in homicides, from 18 in 2010 to 13 last year.

Petersburg recorded the biggest drop, from 12 to seven, but Colonial Heights recorded its first killings in seven years with the bludgeoning deaths of an elderly couple in their home.

On the outskirts of the Richmond region, the counties of Amelia, Caroline, Cumberland, Louisa, King and Queen, King William and Sussex made it through 2011 without a single homicide.