Eric Prado

LEPSL 550

I had some trouble researching data for the Daly City Police Department located in San Mateo

County, CA. This is the community that I live in. For purposes of this research intensive project I

will be reporting on The Santa Clara County Sheriffs Office, my former employer. Upon

researching, I found a wealth of data and more accurate resources.

Santa Clara County is located in the Bay Area region of Northern California. The county has a

population of approximately 1,918,044 residents and is home to one of the major cities, San Jose.

San Jose has a population of approximately 998,537 residents. San Jose was once known as the

safest big city.

A large portion of crime occurring in San Jose, consists of property related crime such as

burglaries and thefts. The more violent crimes still remain lower than other major cities such as

Los Angeles and San Diego.

The Santa Clara County Public Health Department, in close connection with various law

enforcement agencies within the county, have written a County Violence Profile, which kept
track of criminal offenses and the details of the victims involved in these incidents in the year,

2012. The violence profile is broken down into sections; adult and youth violence, intimate

partner violence, youth safety, youth risk factors, youth protective factors, child maltreatment,

and elder/dependent adult maltreatment.

Although it is not extremely detailed, the county profile does a good job in tracking victims in

certain crimes. Keeping track of this data can help determine where funding should be

distributed to. For example, according to the Santa Clara County Violence Profile (2012),

Demand for domestic violence related programs are on the rise. The number of victims who

accessed local domestic violence shelters increased from the year 2010 to 2011, while the

number of those unable to access shelter increased. Keeping track of victim data such as this can

help push for a change in an increased amount of shelter or programs offered by law enforcement

agencies.

The county violence profile also includes a breakdown of data into subdivisions such as one that

displays victim data of people of color. For example, in 2009, 40 percent of homicide victims

were Hispanic. The percentage of children maltreated within six months of a substantiated

maltreatment allegation was 6 times higher in 2010 among Hispanic children (12%) than

Asian/Pacific Islander children (2%)(Santa Clara County Public Health Department, 2012.)

The county profile also keeps track of important factors such as gang involvement. African

American (14%), Native American (11%), and Hispanic (10%) students were more likely to

consider themselves part of a gang in 2009-10 as compared to Asian/Pacific Islander and White
students (each 5%)(Santa Clara County Public Health Department, 2012.) Keeping track of this

type of data can help agencies concentrate on problem neighborhoods, lower crime, and in turn

lower the number of victims.

Along with this data, the violence profile provides a breakdown on what percentage of victims

are male, female, youth and young adults.

The Santa Clara County Violence Profile provides numbers to different types of agencies in

order to combat various issues in the community. In addition to tracking these numbers, the

violence profile can help aid in alleviating most of these issues, and in some cases eliminate

these issues.

 References

Aguirre, A., Baath, M., Baragan, S., & Reedy, A. (2012). Santa Clara County Violence Profile.
County Violence Profile, 2-48. Retrieved July 20, 2016, from
https://www.sccgov.org/sites/sccphd/en-us/Partners/Data/Documents/Final_Violence Profile
Report_6 21 12_PHD FINAL.pdf.

Rosenberg, M. (2013, December 16). San Jose crime rate surpasses U.S. average, arrests
plummet. San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved July 21, 2016.