Let's keep up the good work and achieve the lowest percentage in crime yet by 2010. Gerald Abdul-Wasi' Florida Department of Corrections Ft.
Crime exacts a devastating social and economic cost on our society.
It violates our sense of right and wrong, imposes grave personal losses, and causes us to fear for our safety in our own communities. For business, it creates one more hurdle for survival. High-profile crimes, especially against visitors, threaten Florida's vital tourism industry. To deal with the problem, we siphon millions of dollars into prisons and programs for offenders that could be spent for education, health care, infrastructure, or other improvements to benefit the general population. Florida's violent and non-violent crime rates have consistently decreased since the late '80s and early '90s, but are still significantly higher than U.S. rates.