Despite an aggravated assault and shooting happening within weeks of each other in December, violent crime at the Avenues Mall has not increased since 2021.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The holiday shopping season at the Avenues Mall turned violent, with two incidents leading to caution tape and a large police presence in December. Comments on First Coast News’ Facebook Page about the incidents said things like:
- “This mall has been demoted on the list of safe places to be,”
- “My favorite mall, so sad it’s becoming this,”
- “Used to not be like this years ago.”
THE QUESTION
Has violent crime at the Avenues Mall increased over the past few years?
SOURCES
Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office
THE ANSWER
No, violent crime has not increased at The Avenues Mall since the start of 2021.
WHAT WE FOUND
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office was called to the mall 1,913 times from 2021-23.
However, a bulk of those are for things like trespassing, theft and property checks, not violent crimes.
The FBI defines violent crime in four categories: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault, so we’ll focus on those while including shootings and kidnappings.
While there have been 31 calls for assault at the mall since the start of 2021, a spokesperson with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office specified those don’t necessarily match the description for aggravated assault. Many could include threats of violence or something simple like shoving or a slap.
He said aggravated assault requires the intent to cause serious bodily harm, so we’ll only count assault calls with injuries or weapons involved.
With that in mind, there were 11 calls for violent crime at The Avenues in 2021, three in 2022 and five in 2023.
2023’s violent crime at the mall was spread into several categories, one robbery, one assault with injury, one shooting and two calls for discharging a firearm at a person.
In total only 18 of the nearly 2000 calls for service at the Avenues the past three years have been for violent crime, or less than 1%.
While theft and burglary are not violent, they do certainly play a role in the mall’s image.
There have been 349 calls for theft and burglary since the start of 2021.
118 in 2021, 114 in 2022 and 117 in 2023 – no discernible trend there, but that is one roughly ever three days.
