A Closer Look at Crime in Philadelphia

This is a follow up to yesterday’s post where I showed the difference in crime rates in Philadelphia between 2017 and 2022.  And again, it is true crime rates are going up in Philadelphia but it is important to understand the breakdown of the crimes being committed before you consider Philadelphia an unsafe place to visit.  When people say, “Have you seen the crime rates in Philadelphia?  I would never visit there.” They automatically assume the crime rate only reflect crimes involving physical harm to people.  The truth is crimes involving physical harm to people has almost remained the same between 2017 and 2022.  In 2017 25% of crime involved some sort of assault.  In 2022 that number has risen to 27%.  The major change in crime between 2017 and 2022 is the redistribution between “White collar crimes” and “General charges” combine and “Crimes involving property”.  Basically theft is making up a majority of the crime in Philadelphia today.  In fact the rate of rapes reported has dropped 2%.