DOMESTIC ABUSE LEADS CRIME RISE; SANTA CLARITA SEES VIOLENCE INCREASE DURING SUMMER MONTHS.

Byline: Stacy Brown Daily News Staff Writer

A spike in the number of domestic violence complaints spurred a dramatic increase in aggravated assaults during the third quarter of the year, with rapes, robberies and burglaries also on the rise.

According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, residents of the nation's third-safest large city reported nine rapes, 27 robberies, 216 aggravated assaults and 251 burglaries from July through September.

This compares with three rapes, 18 robberies, 159 aggravated assaults and 157 burglaries reported during the first three months of the year.

Lt. Tim Peters attributed the rise in aggravated assaults to a growing problem with domestic violence.

``Aggravated assaults occur primarily between someone who knows the victim.

It seems there is a trend where people are acting violently to solve their problems,'' Peters said.

Peters said there were 189 incidents of domestic violence reported in all of 1996 compared with 235 so far this year.

``That's the primary reason that assault crimes are up. Domestic violence is extremely hard to prevent and it's something that we don't know about until it explodes in our faces,'' Peters said.

City Manager George Caravalho, who is expected soon to select a new police chief from among three finalists, said he was concerned about the increase in quarterly figures, but noted that crime frequently rises during the summer months.

``I feel and have felt for many years that there has been too much crime and we should not accept that,'' Caravalho said. ``We shouldn't get complacent because as a society, while they talk about stats and being one of the safest cities, crime is still too high.''

However, Caravalho said it may be difficult to judge the safety of a city by using quarterly statistics and said it would be fair only to compare what crime was like a year ago.

Overall, rapes were down 17 percent from 1996, robbery fell 16 percent and burglary, 23 percent. However, aggravated assaults rose 19 percent.

And while there were five homicides in 1996, there have already been that many this year.

``Looking at the numbers and comparing them from year to year gives you a better picture,'' Mayor Clyde Smyth said. ``It is true that during the summer you will have more (problems).''

Caravalho said the city, recognized by the FBI as the nation's third-safest with a population of 100,000 or more, is still making progress in fighting crime.

``I would like to see crime continue to decline and we have a lot of community programs and functions that works well with law enforcement,'' Caravalho said.