Thou Shalt Not Covet

Coveting is rather difficult to quantify, but cars are big ticket items that are likely coveted by covetous neighbors.  So, for this sin in my rundown of the Ten Commandments, I thought I would look at motor vehicle thefts in 2012.  According to the FBI data, California, Nevada, and Washington are hotspots for auto theft.  The District of Columbia again has the highest auto theft rate, but I have excluded it.  As with thefts in general, the northern tier of the country reports fewer auto thefts.

Thou Shalt Not Steal

So, where are you most likely to be robbed? It turns out to be South Carolina for the year 2012.  The Palmetto State had the highest theft rate per 100,000 population of any state in 2012 according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting data.  Actually, the tiny urban enclave of the District of Columbia had a higher theft rate in 2012, but DC isn't a state.  DC also more closely resembles large US cities so I have excluded it to create this map.

Theft is in fact more common across the southern tier of the US all the way to Arizona and Utah.  Interestingly, the theft rate is lowest in Idaho and New Jersey.

I should add one caveat:  thefts reported to the FBI involve the victim first reporting the crime to the local authorities and then the authorities reporting to the FBI.  So, I should say the reported theft rate.

Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbor

I looked for statistics on perjury convictions by state but was unable to find any.  So, I'm a bit stumped about how to quantify bearing false witness.  So, instead, I'm offering you a map looking at the overall violent crime rate for 2012.  Violent crimes include reported murders, rapes, and aggravated assaults.  Again, I've excluded DC -which again has the highest violent crime rate- because its crime rates are more indicative of a city than a state.

The southern tier of states overall have higher violent crime rates -as does Alaska.  Let's look a bit deeper into specific types of violent crimes.

Murder rates are highest in Louisiana and Mississippi and lowest in Vermont and New Hampshire.

The pattern is different for rapes with the Plains states and Alaska having higher rape rates compared to the lower rates along the East Coast and California.

Finally, let's look at aggravated assault.  This crime focuses on intentional bodily attacks on another person. In all states, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon brings greater penalties than simple assault.  The central South stands out here with Tennessee having a much higher crime rate for assault in 2012.

Of note are the similar patterns for violent crime overall, murder, and aggravated assault.  Rape rates, however, stand out as a different pattern to crime.