The Beaufort Gazette: Violent crime up across the nation

The recent spate of violent crimes in the county, including three in downtown Beaufort, would give the impression that the Lowcountry is keeping pace with national statistics on crime.

FBI statistics released two weeks ago confirm that violent crime in the United States is on the rise, recording its highest one-year increase in 15 years. While final figures won't be out until the fall, the preliminary numbers give people pause. Last October the U.S. Justice Department reported that the nation's violent crime rate was unchanged from 2004 and remained at its lowest level since the government began keeping statistics 38 years ago.

The department defines violent crimes as assault, sexual assault and armed robberies. Recent crimes in the Lowcountry include:

The Bluffton Town Hall was robbed.

Gunfire was exchanged after a man robbed a Hardeeville liquor store at gunpoint.

A couple were abducted at gunpoint in the parking lot near Waterfront Park in downtown Beaufort. They were robbed and the woman raped.

An elderly woman was raped and killed in her apartment off Battery Creek Road.

A teenager was abducted and raped last month in downtown Beaufort.

A 21-year-old Burton man, already charged with the March 5 shooting death of his ex-girlfriend, was indicted last month in connection with the murder of her unborn child.

Last month a Bluffton man suspected of sexually assaulting a 3-year-old girl was arrested in Georgia.

In April, a 25-year-old Lady's Island man pleaded guilty to breaking into a Beaufort woman's home and raping her and then forcing her to drop him off at the jail, where he turned himself in.

Hope Haven, a rape crisis center, handled nearly 300 cases in the last year.

As Beaufort County grows, the potential for the county's crime statistics to accelerate also increases.

Last year Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner pinpointed several reasons that the local violent crime rate may be on the rise, including a lack of lighting on streets and in shopping centers. He said thugs don't like to operate in well-lit areas. Another reason was drug activity, which is likely to increase as more people move to this area.

That answer parallels one reported by James Alan Fox, a criminal justice professor at Boston's Northeastern University. As reported in The Post and Courier of Charleston, Fox said the violent crime increase could be attributed to the effects of gangs "branching out to smaller cities, where there is still money to be made and turf to be ruled."

All of this should be a wake-up call for local officials, not just law enforcement. Budgets shouldn't be pared to the bone, but the money that local governments and law enforcement agencies budgeted should be used wisely to make citizens safer.

Beaufort City Councilwoman Donnie Beer has asked for additional money for surveillance cameras in downtown Beaufort. That may be a good idea.

While statistics offer trends in crime, the real impact is in the lives crime affects -- and it can be lasting.