NCJ Number
235117
Date Published
May 2009
Length
29 pages
Annotation
In response to Lane County officials' concern that their community is not following the State (Oregon) and national trend of decreasing crime rates, the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission (CJC), in its role as the State's "impartial forum for statewide policy development and planning," organized a study group to examine county-level data, with a focus on Lane County.
Abstract
Regarding Lane County, the study group found that the county consistently has crime rates higher than 50 percent of Oregon's counties, although never the highest. Both property and violent crime rates in the county have increased in recent years, contrary to the trends in most counties in the State. In 2008, Lane County had the second lowest rate of prosecutors to population among Oregon's counties. In recent years, Lane County has ranked in the bottom 25 percent of the State's counties in jail beds per offense, jail beds per population, and jail beds per arrest. In 2008, it had the lowest rate of jail beds per capita in the State. In 2007, Lane County had the second lowest rate of sworn officers per population, and the highest ratio of index offense to officer. Lane County has an arrest-to-offense ratio higher than 75 percent of all counties. Lane County contributes a disproportionately high number of new admissions to Department of Corrections' prisons. Extensive table and figures