The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has released its Crime in Tennessee report for 2018. It says serious crime, including rape and murder, dropped 3.6 percent in 2018 from 2017. Murder rates fell eight percent; rape was down 4.7 percent.

Solicitation of prostitution fell 65.4 percent.

The majority of last year’s arrests resulted from simple assault, theft, vandalism and narcotics cases.

Domestic violence dropped by 6%. Simple assault accounted for 67.3% of all reported offenses.

Juvenile arrests were down 4.4% – more than 1,000 cases – from 15,450 in 2017 to 14,280 in 2018.

Drug offenses statewide rose slightly, by 0.4%.

But meth remains a big problem. In 2016, TBI said, nearly 9,500 meth-related offenses were reported. In 2018, that number swelled to 15,899 – particularly with regard to drugs illegally imported from outside our state borders.

The TBI said its crime lab had seen an increase in meth from Mexico in the past few years.

Kidnapping also rose by 2.7 percent last year.

You can find the full 1,049-page report here.