 |
When you see something labeled “Cherokee County Violence Profile,” it can’t help but grab your attention. And it did.
The N.C. Department of Public Safety’s Office of Violence Prevention released violence profiles for all 100 of the state’s counties on June 30. The fact sheets bring together health and safety data that will hopefully better inform a public health approach to violence prevention in communities across the state.
“The first step in preventing violence is to understand it,” OVP Director Siarra Scott said in a release. “By pulling together previously siloed data, these fact sheets offer local organizations a more comprehensive insight into how violence is impacting communities from both a public health and criminal justice lens. This data can help violence prevention professionals identify the most effective programs and allocate resources intentionally.”
Since the fact sheets are based on 2022-24 numbers, some of it may be skewed one way or the other due to what’s happened since then. It’s also true that since Cherokee is a smaller, rural county with less population, any violent crime is magnified compared to urban areas. However, there are still lessons to be learned from examining this data.
Here are the key findings in Cherokee County, which the study says has a population of 30,959:
- There were a total of 15 violent deaths in 2022.
- 60% of homicides, and 67% of suicides, in the last 10 years involved a firearm.
- 70% of all homicides involved an argument or conflict.
- In 2023, our county had 1,619 crime incidents, with 82 being violent.
- Violent crime in the county increased by 9% in the last year.
- The most common violent crimes were aggravated assault (68.3%) and rape (17.1%).
- In 2024, only one county resident visited the emergency department due to a firearm injury. Thank the Lord.
- As a result, emergency department visits due to firearm injury decreased by 88% in the last year among residents.
Note: Data was compiled by the State Bureau of Investigation and uploaded to the Criminal Justice Analysis Center’s Justice Data Portal.
What does all this mean? Something we already learned on June 30 – that Cherokee County is not immune to the same violence that plagues inner cities.
While we are blessed to live in what’s considered to be a low-crime area, we must remain vigilant in fighting back against the forces that want to see anarchy and violence in our communities. The next generation coming after us deserves to be able to enjoy our homeland just as much as we have.
David Brown is publisher of the Cherokee Scout. Call him with comments and questions at 828-837-5122 or email dbrown@cherokeescout.com.