Federal senators cited the city’s overflowing violent crime when they rejected DC’s petition to amend the penal code. Nonetheless, a survey by the Washington Post-Schar School found that DC residents feel safer from crime in their neighborhood than they did at this time last year.
In comparison to November 2019 before the epidemic, more than three-quarters of Washington residents (77%) say they feel “a lot” or “somewhat” safe from crime in their areas, an increase from 69 percent in 2022.
On average, people feel even safer in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC; 86 percent of Marylanders and 94 percent of residents of Northern Virginia say they feel comfortable in their areas.Nonetheless, crime continues to be the region’s top concern. According to the survey, inhabitants of the area are more concerned about crime and security than housing costs, though by a smaller margin in Prince George’s County. Homicide rates have increased, and auto thefts have increased, in Prince George’s and Washington, DC.
Despite a 32% spike in homicides from 2022, violent crime in the nation’s capital is down 9% from the same time last year, according to DC police data released on Thursday. Robberies have decreased, which is mostly to blame for the drop in violent crime. But, since last year, property crime in DC has surged 32%, with auto theft increasing by 109%. School for Post-Schar.Revisions to DC’s decades-old Criminal Code would have changed the penalties for some crimes, including lowering the maximum statutory penalties for certain offenses such as robbery, burglary and auto theft. Supporters of the bill said it would have allowed sentencing guidelines to be more closely tailored to the seriousness of crimes and would bring the penalties in the law more in line with what judges actually hand out. But the city’s mayor, police chief and a bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress — which has oversight of district laws under a provision in the constitution — opposed the code, saying it sent the wrong message about public safety .
Post-Schau School Survey Results by Demographic Group
On Wednesday, the Senate voted jointly with the House of Representatives to repeal the revised DC criminal code, the first time in more than 30 years that Congress voted to block local DC legislation. President Biden has announced that he will sign the resolution.
What you should know about the (apparently doomed) DC Criminal Code.The survey was conducted by The Post and the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University February 17-27 among a random sample of 1,668 DC-area adults, including 556 residents each in the District, Northern Virginia and the suburbs of the district in Maryland. It has an overall margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points, with a margin of error of 4.5 points in each sub-region.
