Incarceration

The figures below display the prison and jail incarceration rates in Virginia counties, with Halifax County denoted by the lines in color, from 1983 to 2013 and 1970 to 2017, respectively. It is clear that prison incarceration rates, particularly among males, have consistently and dramatically increased over the past three to four decades. Comparatively, jail incarceration rates are not quite as high; however, they have drastically increased since the mid-1990’s. Incarceration rates for females are significantly lower than those for males but have also increased noticeably since 1990.

Crime Trends Over Time

On average, 2,081 crimes came to the attention of law enforcement within the 10-year period between 2010 and 2019 in Halifax County. In contrast to the increase in incarceration, we notice a slight drop in reported crimes over the past few years. Including the Virginia court records data would help us determine whether these opposite trends may be explained by variations in sentencing tendencies or other court-related factors.

Most Common Offense Types and Clearance Rates

The following figure displays the types of crimes that came to the attention of law enforcement in Halifax County and their corresponding clearance by arrest rate on the right. Drug violations, simple assault, larceny, and destruction of property made up the bulk of the crimes; however, this did not necessarily correspond to higher arrest rates. While drug violations and simple assaults resulted in arrests nearly 50% of the time, larceny and destruction of property resulted in arrests much less frequently. This disparity highlights the complex process that proceeds a crime coming to the attention of law enforcement and precedes an arrest - namely that there exist many latent factors, including difficulty of “solving” the crime and effort put forth by law enforcement, that impact whether an arrest is made.

Crime Trends by Race

Overall, law enforcement was alerted to less than 50 crimes committed by White individuals per 1,000 people for nearly all counties in Virginia. In contrast, law enforcement was alerted to more than 50 crimes committed by Black individuals per 1,000 people in counties in Virginia. In fact, several counties reported 200 crimes committed by Black people per 1,000 people. In Halifax County specifically (denoted by the lines in color), law enforcement learned of twice as many crimes committed by Black individuals compared to White individuals. This disparity highlights the complex process by which crimes are given law enforcement attention - namely that factors such as historical policies and/or varying levels of law enforcement presence in neighborhoods influences law enforcement attention.

Clearance Rates by Race

The figure below displays the clearance by arrest rates of all Virginia county crimes by race. Interestingly, the average clearance rate for crimes by White people was higher than that of crimes by Black people, which potentially underlies differences in the types of crimes. In Halifax County specifically (denoted by the lines in color), the clearance rate for crimes by Black people was above average compared to all Virginia counties, whereas it was below average for crimes by White people compared to other Virginia counties.

Map of All Crimes

Map of Drug Crimes