I've had the flu for about the last week, so I've spent a fair bit of time on the couch watching daytime TV...which, for me, means cable news rather than soaps. I watched about four hours of the Senate Goldman hearings, which was quite a treat.

Today one of the talking-head shows had the usual Democrat and Republican screaming at each other. The Democrat stated as fact that the per-capita crime rate in Arizona has gone down since 2005, and of course the Republican reflexively called her a liar.

Cue the google...

Verdict: Absolutely true.

Arizona Crime Index Rates Per 100,000 Inhabitants
||Year|Population|Index|Violent|Property|Murder|Forcible Rape|Robbery|Aggravated assault|Burglary|Larceny-Theft|Vehicle Theft
2005|5,953,007|5,351.2|512.0|4,838.0|7.5|33.7|144.1|326.7|946.2|2,958.4|922.3|
2006|6,166,318|5,128.3|501.4|4,627.9|7.5|31.5|149.6|312.7|925.3|2,813.1|889.5|
2007|6,338,755|4,896.7|482.7|4,414.0|7.4|29.3|151.7|294.3|912.2|2,738.4|763.4|
2008|6,500,180|4,738.0|447.0|4,291.0|6.3|25.7|149.2|265.9|868.9|2,849.5|572.6||
(from disastercenter.com, based on Arizona's published Uniform Crime Reports)

Along the way, google gave me links to several rather interesting maps of crime statistics throughout Arizona. They're all fancy Flash widgets, e.g. Google maps, so I had to make screen captures to post here; but I recommend a trip to visit the original maps, to take advantage of the interactive features.

neighborhoodscout.com

Something puzzled me about this map right away: Wouldn't you expect that, if illegal immigration was causing a major crime problem in Arizona, the problem would be most severe nearest the border?

On the original, I moved the mouse over the various counties to see a popup explanation, and the answer was revealed: In Arizona, as in every other place in the world, crime is higher in urban areas than in rural areas.

Another Arizona crime map makes it clear:

city-data.com

Crime is clustered around cities! Stop the presses...

Take another look at the map. What's actually the most crime-ridden border in Arizona? The border with California. Apparently they have more problems with drunken boaters on Lake Havasu and the Colorado River than with illegal immigrants. I've been a drunken boater on that stretch of water, so I know whereof I speak.

Will facts make any difference in this, or any other, political debate? Nah, but I got the urge to do research and scratch the curiosity itch, and get it out of my system.

(Edited 4/29 to correct image URLs)