New crime data in South Carolina shows a Midlands County had the state’s highest rate of violent crime in 2023.
At a rate of around 143 violent crimes per 10,000, Orangeburg County had the highest rate, according to a crime report recently released by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Allendale County was second at about 122 per 10,000 residents, followed by Dillon County at 119, Darlington County at 103 and Marlboro at 93.
The report classifies violent crime as aggravated assault, murder, robbery and sexual battery.
Solicitor David Pascoe of the 1st Judicial Circuit, which covers Calhoun, Dorchester and Orangeburg counties, acknowledged the lofty rates, pointing to poverty as the primary cause.
“When you look at the most violent counties and the least violent, all five of those (top) counties in the SLED report have poverty rates over 20%,” Pascoe said. “And four of the top five most violent counties are among the poorest counties in the state, being Allendale, Dillon, Marlboro and Orangeburg.”
Allendale, Dillon, Marlboro and Orangeburg counties have poverty rates between 24 and 37%, according to the latest available data from the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce.
In 2022, poverty rates across all counties nationally ranged from 3.1% to 42.4%, with a median poverty rate of 13.6%, according to U.S. Census data.
In 2022, Allendale County was the most poverty stricken in South Carolina at 36.7%, followed by Dillion County at 30.3%, Marlboro County at 28.7%, Orangeburg County at 24.6% and Darlington County at 20.9%, according to the census.
In contrast, counties with the least violent crime rates all have poverty rates under 20%. These are the counties with the lowest violent crime rates.
- Edgefield: 7.97%
- McCormick: 15.09%
- Abbeville: 20.05%
- Pickens: 21.33%
- Cherokee: 25.57%
Evidence that poverty is the primary cause of high violent crime rates is clear in the 1st Circuit, Pascoe said.
“Right next door to Orangeburg is Dorchester County, which is among counties with the least amount of poverty in the state, and has the lowest violent crime rate in the Lowcountry,” Pascoe said.
Orangeburg has struggled with high crime rates in the past, he said.
“When I took over as solicitor in 2005, Orangeburg, unfortunately, was recognized for having the worst violent crime and homicide rates in the country other than Washington, D.C., and we got it straightened out within a couple of years,” Pascoe said.
Pascoe said his approach then and now includes “getting even tougher on bonds, revoking bonds, and start getting more (homicide cases) through the court system, to make examples of them and let people see how much time they’re going to spend In prison if they want to commit a homicide.”
Pascoe said his office, in partnership with law enforcement, have been successful in at least reducing murder rates in Orangeburg.
“In 2022 we had 31 murders in Orangeburg,” Pascoe said. “We got it down to 17 in 2023 and right now in 2024 we’re in single digits (8).”
Orangeburg County Sheriff Leroy Ravenell failed to offer comment relating to his county’s crime rates, despite multiple attempts by The State.
Counties with the greatest increases in violent crime rates from 2022 to 2023 were:
- Allendale, up 69.81%
- Jasper, up 32.56%
- McCormick, up 15.38%
- Dorchester, up 13.63%
- Colleton, up 9.73%.
The counties with the greatest decreases in violent crime rates from 2022 to 2023 were
- Abbeville, down 60.80%
- Chester, down 32.01%
- Cherokee, down 29.27%
- Dillon, down 29.18%
- Georgetown, down 27.37%.
“If you want to get down from 31 to single digits in two years, you’ve got to get tough on guns and on assaults and not worry about emptying the jails, but to fill them up with dangerous criminals, to keep them off our streets,” Pascoe said.
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