University of California, Irvine, School of Social Ecology Irvine at 50: A Tale of Continuity and Change • November 1 2021
Figure 2.8 For the three property subtypes (Figure 2.8), we see that larceny (red line) has consistently remained below the average city. Up until the mid-1990s, Irvine’s larceny rate bounced between 70%-90% of an average city, and has since fallen to about 60% of an average city. The motor vehicle theft rate also has been low (purple line), though it has fluctuated between 30%-90% of the average city in earlier years. From the early 1990s until 2010, the motor vehicle theft rate consistently declined compared to the average city to be just 30% as large. During the 2010s, for every motor vehicle theft in Irvine, the average city experiences about 3. The story is a bit different for burglaries (blue line). In the late 1970s, Irvine had a burglary rate that was about 30% higher than an average city. During the 1980s, however, Irvine’s burglary rate was only 70%-90% that of an average city (with the exception of a small spike in 1984). During the 1990s, Irvine’s burglary rate was about 70% of the average city, and then during the 2000s the burglary rate underwent a long steady decline. By 2008, the rate was just 28% that of the average city. However since then the relative burglary rate has been rising. Recall that the burglary rate has been holding steady, as Figure 2.6 showed. Given that burglary rates are generally decreasing in other cities, Irvine’s relative burglary rate has risen to about 60% that of an average city—still quite impressive.
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