Los Angeles crime is drifting into majority white and well-to-do areas of the city, bringing an abnormal amount of danger and theft into some of the city’s neighborhoods.
Crime rates in major cities jumped followed the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and outbreak of riots over the murder of George Floyd in 2020. In Los Angeles, some of the largest spikes in crime are happening in wealthy and predominantly white neighborhoods, feeding a general concern in California’s largest city that law and order is slipping dangerously away, according to RealClearInvestigations.
Criminologist John Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center, in conjunction with RealClearInvestigations. conducted a study of crime rates in areas across the city and found that wealthier and whiter zip codes were bearing the brunt of the crime wave. In zip code with populations 80-100% white, incidents of rape jumped 18.2% from 2019 to 2022. Zip codes with under 60% white residents saw either no change or a decrease in rapes, according to Lott’s analysis of census and Los Angeles Police Department crime statistics.
Lott found a similar trend for incidents of aggravated assault. Zip codes 60-80% white and 80-100% white saw a 2.9% jump a 4.3% jump in aggravated assault from 2019 to 2022, respectively. In comparison, zip codes consisting of 20% or less of white residents saw a 4.4% decrease in the same time frame.
Robberies in zip codes 60-80% white jumped 8.7%, and areas 80-100% white jumped 11.8% in the past three years. Zip codes 20-40% white saw a 2.6% decrease in robberies, while those areas with 20% or less of residents identifying as white saw a 3.5% decrease.
The pattern appeared in areas of relatively higher and lower wealth as well. In zip codes with a median home price of $2 million or more, cases of shoplifting rose by 16.7% from 2019 to 2022. Cases rose on average for zip codes with a median home price higher than $750,000. For the average zip code with a lower median home price, incidents of shop lifting dropped from 2019 to 2022.
In areas with a median home price of $1-$1.5 million and $1.5-$2 million, cases of motor vehicle theft rose 8.2% and 7.8%, respectively. Such incidents dropped for the average zip code with a median home price of less than $500,000. Zip codes with a median home price of $400,000-$500,000 dropped by an average of 7.1%.
LAPD Chief Michel Moore held a press conference on Tuesday to reassure the public and offer guidance amid a surge in cases of would-be pickpockets and thieves following people wearing expensive jewelry out of stores and restaurants to rob them.
“While I am not encouraging anyone to not wear their watches and jewelries, I am encouraging you to be mindful that this is occurring and it has persisted now for more than six months, going on a year,” Moore said. “And we’re concerned that the temperament of the offenders that are involved in this has not been changed by the enforcement efforts taken to date.”
