If You're Thinking About Moving From California ... (Los Angeles, San Diego: crime rate, felons)

[sheri257]

Here's some food for thought. I realize nobody wants to pay taxes and everybody wants to reduce their cost of living. Can't really argue with that ... and I'm not really trying to talk people out of moving but ...

All of this talk about California's higher taxes and supposedly higher crime rate got me thinking ... how does California's crime rate compare with all of these cheaper places that people are moving to?

As California is getting ready to spend another $8 billion on prisons so we can lock up more criminals ... it begs the question ... does California's three strikes law (where repeat felons get longer sentences) reduce our crime compared to other states? And is our higher income tax probably worth it?

The answer is ... yes.

Take, for example, the crimes per 100,000 data posted on this website for major U.S. cities. The national average is 325. Los Angeles and San Francisco are higher than that ...

San Diego: 303
San Francisco: 489
Los Angeles: 408

But the crime rates for other major cities are typically MUCH higher than California's ...

Dallas: 753
Houston: 659
Phoenix: 578
Denver: 574
Miami: 725
Las Vegas: 674
Seattle: 593
Portland: 561

Most of these states either don't have any income tax at all or, their income tax rate is typically half that of California's. About 40 percent of California's state budget is funded with income tax which, obviously is going to fund that $8 billion for more prisons.

So .... at least when it comes to crime ... you get what you pay for.

Cheap = More Crime.

[califantastic]

I wonder how the life expectancy of California compares to other states and which states have the highest and lowest life expectancy. Another non-financial factor to consider.

[zenjenn]

I was also reading an article about crime statistics, specifically about that high Dallas crime statistic. I believe it was comparing Dallas to Los Angels. An example was given how, a single criminal who goes on a car-theft spree where he steals 10 cars, for example, gets counted as 10 crimes in Dallas, and only 1 crime in Los Angeles. A variety of political and random factors play into how crime statistics are generated.

[EscapeCalifornia]

I recently compared crime rates in Los Angeles to Denver based on both crimes per 100k people and per square mile. The extremely large population of a place like LA tends to dilute the crime rates.

Take two cities, each the same size geographically, but city A has 5x the population of city B. City A could have twice the number of crimes, but still have less crimes per capita. But would you really feel safer in city A knowing the crime rate per capita is lower even though twice as many crimes are being committed in your neighborhood?

[sheri257]

I figured people would come up with all kinds of excuses ... crimes are counted differently in different states ... more population dilutes the number of crimes, etc.

If that was really true then I seriously doubt that California would do so well across the board.

The simple fact is: we spend a lot of money locking criminals up and it pays off.

Why, for example, is Dallas' crime rate so high? The Dallas Police Chief specifically cites budget cuts as the reason ...

DALLAS AT THE TIPPING POINT

"Chief Kunkle, who started work in June, inherited a department pinched by budget cuts in the 1990s and into this decade that quietly reduced Dallas' police presence even as city leaders declared crime-fighting to be a high priority."

This is the fallout from low taxes ... Texas simply doesn't have the tax base to fight crime effectively.

BTW ... a BIG chunk of the $8 billion that California is spending is also going to local counties to help fund their jails. The state has signed agreements with several counties to do this.

With more state money for local jails ... that will free up more local operating funds for officers to hit the streets.

Like I said ... you get what you pay for.

Cheap = More Crime.

[CAtoGA]

Wouldn't it be nice if we spent as much money on education in order to teach the kids how to become productive members of society instead of career criminals that caused the need for 8 billion being spent on prisons?

[Greenchili]

Originally Posted by CAtoGA

Wouldn't it be nice if we spent as much money on education in order to teach the kids how to become productive members of society instead of career criminals that caused the need for 8 billion being spent on prisons?

Actually, it would be nice if PARENTS taught their kids that. But, alas,we
live in a deteriorating society.

[sheri257]

Well ... this time they are going to try to do more "rehabilitation" before these inmates are released. While they're mostly expanding the existing prisons to handle the overcrowding problem ...

The brand new prisons will be "re-entry" facilities that will focus a lot more on job training, education, drug rehab and mental health counseling for inmates who have less than a year to go on their sentences.

I have no idea if this will work or not but, as it stands now ... the state doesn't do much to keep these guys from committing more crimes. So they are going to try to change that with these new prisons.

[Sorcerer68]

Originally Posted by califantastic

I wonder how the life expectancy of California compares to other states and which states have the highest and lowest life expectancy. Another non-financial factor to consider.

I can't quote statistics but I'm 3rd generation and the ones here in my family mostly live into their 90's...but of course genetics are a huge factor.

[CAtoGA]

Originally Posted by Greenchili

Actually, it would be nice if PARENTS taught their kids that. But, alas,we
live in a deteriorating society.

Okay, you got me here. But what I was generally speaking of is the education that they need in order to qualify for the jobs. The responsibility and integrity, they definitely need to learn at home.