In Hawaii: As the State Goes Broke, Crime Gets High!

As the State of Aloha continues to cope from a huge budget deficit totaling to $1.2B for 2010 and locals suffer from all-time high unemployment rate, crime rate goes high.

According to the Associated Press, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that during the first half of 2009, they saw a 5.8 % increase in Honolulu's crime stats compared with the first half of 2008.

AP added that authorities had warned the economic downturn could trigger a spike in major crime, especially thefts.The new figures show an 18 % rise in auto thefts and an 8 % jump in thefts.

It can be recalled that Hawaii locals have already expressed their concern on worsening peace and order all over the state.

Last year, although the Department of Attorney General reported an ample decreased in crime rate, the residents of Hawaii contradicted the said report through a survey released in September 2009.

More than 51 % of the respondents of "Crime & Justice in Hawaii: 2008 Household Survey Report" felt that the state's crime rate was higher than usual in 2008, and only 13 % felt that it was lower, while 57 % of residents surveyed claimed that they were fearful of being the victim of a violent crime anytime in the near future.

Hawaii locals even felt then that because the state is suffering from a big budget deficit, it's very unlikely that there will be opportunities available for the low-income and middle class families coming from neither the state government nor the private sector's initiative. And that it may take awhile for locals to benefit from promising infrastructure projects like the Honolulu Rail Transit.

Even with the said drop in statistic in 2008, Hawaii remains to have higher rate of property crime than the national average. Residents reported about 3,567 property crimes to police for every 100,000 residents in 2008, compared with 3,213 for the nation as a whole.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in Hawaii reached 6.9% at the end of 2009, and the state lose about 23,300 jobs from December 2008 to December 2009.