Although Athens County Sheriff’s Pat Kelly has said he considers the county to be safe, a recent study shows the violent crime rate is higher in Athens than in surrounding counties.
There were 97 violent crimes per 100,000 people in Athens County between 2008 and 2010 — 31 more crimes than the national benchmark of 66, according to the County Health Rankings study conducted by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The study defined violent crime as “offenses that involve face-to-face confrontation between the victim and the perpetrator, including homicide, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault” — the definition also used by the FBI.
Along with Athens County, 75 percent of Ohio counties exceed the national benchmark, according to the study.
“Athens is safer than Ohio overall, but Athens is not quite as safe as the national benchmark … (which is) what should it be,” said Amy Bush Stevens, research, evaluation and policy analyst of the Health Policy Institute of Ohio.
For every 100,000 people in Ohio, 332 violent crimes occur, the study showed. The state’s rate is not an average of the individual counties’ rates but rather a measure of crime in the state as a whole, Stevens said.
Lucas County, where Toledo is located, has the highest violent crime ranking in the state with 824 crimes per 100,000 people. The lowest is Perry County, north of Athens, with 25. Wood County, home to Bowling Green State University, has a violent crime rate of 71.
Other counties with high rankings include Franklin County with 537 and Allen County with 517 per 100,000 people.
“If you have one (violent crime), that’s one too many in my eyes,” Allen County Sheriff Sam Crish said. “We have violent crimes, but certainly having one is too many.”
Unemployment and poverty throughout the county both contribute to crime, Kelly said.
He added that crime is prevalent in parts of the county that are more densely populated, such as Athens, Nelsonville and Glouster, rather than more rural areas.
Even though Athens is among the many counties that exceed the national benchmark in violent crime, Kelly said he considers Athens County to be safe and in good hands.
“We have crime. Everybody has crime,” said Kelly. “We’ll do our best to make (Athens) safer.”
kf398711@ohiou.edu
