There are nearly 18,000 law enforcement agencies throughout the United States. Most of these agencies serve jurisdictions at the state and local level. Therefore, understanding the extent of different problems in the individual states is crucial if these problems are going to be addressed. In this report, we will focus on the state-level results for a select group of questions focused on violent crime. Subsequent reports will focus on the other content contained within the ORC Across the States survey. This brief report focuses on how problematic the retail respondents perceive various violent crime problems to be in the states they serve.
Sample
For this portion of the survey, we also only used the responses from individuals who served 1-10 states. That is, we averaged all the responses for all the practitioners that served each state to understand the dynamics across the states.
Nevertheless, for this report, we limited the analysis to practitioners who served 1-10 states for two reasons. First, these individuals should have the most in-depth knowledge of these areas. Alternatively, if we included the national-level respondents, then their responses would skew the results. For example, if a national level practitioner reported that ORC boosters were extremely problematic in the states they served, then these responses would make it seem like ORC boosters were worse in states where ORC boosters are not as much of a problem. We omitted states for which there were fewer than eight respondents.
Retail Crime Problems Mapped
In one part of the survey, we asked the respondents “In the areas you serve, how problematic are the following issues are on a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 is not a problem and 7 is an extreme problem.” For this report, we focus on violence, including physical violence or threats of violence, robbery, aggression (without direct violence or threats of violence), and then calculated the average response for each state and mapped the results. Throughout the next series of maps, the states shown in blue are those where practitioners tended to rate the issue as less problematic while practitioners in warmer color states tended to rate the issue as more problematic.
An Important Caveat
One important caveat for this report is that different individuals reported their perceptions of these different issues for each state. If respondents in different states are more or less sensitive to these issues than respondents in other areas, then this will affect the results. For example, if respondents in some states have become accustomed to high crime and perceive offending to be at “normal” levels then they may be less likely to see the local crime problems as more problematic.
Nevertheless, the results provided in this report provide important context to the retail crime discussion. One of the most important aspects of these findings is that some states are consistently ranked as more of a problem for some types of violence (e.g., West Coast states for robbery, aggression, and weapon carrying), but other states tend to rank higher for physical violence and threats of physical violence.
Violence: Physical or Direct Threats
Figure 1 provides the state-level averages for the respondents that serve each state. The retailers were asked to rate how problematic violence (physical violence or threats of physical violence) is in the states they serve on a 1 to 7 scale, with 1 corresponding to not a problem and 5 corresponding to an extreme problem.
As Figure 1 shows, the states where physical violence and threats are perceived to be most problematic are several of the states in the Great Lakes region, several Northeastern states, Louisiana, and Nevada. Similarly many of the states on the West Coast ranked near the top, as well as Arkansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, and Illinois.
Robbery
Second, Figure 2 (below) provides the state level averages for the respondents that serve each state. The retailers were asked to rate how problematic robbery is in the states they serve on a 1 to 7 scale, with 1 corresponding to not a problem and 5 corresponding to an extreme problem. As the map shows, many of the states that are perceived to be most problematic are on the West Coast, although there are pockets in the Northeast and Great Lakes region where robbery is perceived to be more problematic than other parts of the nation.
Aggression (Without Direct Threats or Physical Violence)
Third, retailers were asked to rate how problematic aggression (without direct threats or physical violence (see Figure 3) is in the states they serve on a 1 to 7 scale, with 1 corresponding to not a problem and 5 corresponding to an extreme problem. Once again, as the map shows, many of the states that are perceived to be most problematic are on the West Coast, although there are pockets in the Northeast, and the Great Lakes region where robbery is perceived to be more problematic than other parts of the nation. Finally, Louisiana stands out as another state where aggression is rated as more of a problem.
Weapon Carrying During Theft
Finally, retailers were asked to rate how problematic weapon carrying during theft (see Figure 4) is in the states they serve on a 1 to 7 scale, with 1 corresponding to not a problem and 5 corresponding to an extreme problem. Once again, many of the states on the West Coast stand out as being perceived as most problematic, although New Jersey is also among the states that are perceived to be most problematic.
Conclusion
Among the respondents to the ORC Across the States survey, states on the West Coast were consistently perceived to be among the most problematic in the nation for robbery, aggression (without physical violence or threats), and weapon carrying during theft. However, surprisingly, other regions stood out as being perceived to be more problematic with regards to physical violence and threats of physical violence in the broadest sense. These areas should consider implementing policies and practices that can provide a greater level of comfort to those working in these areas.