There have been more murders in Staten Island in every year during Dan Donovan’s time as district attorney than there were in his first year on the job, rising from 8 in 2004 to 16 in 2009, with a peak of 21 in 2008. The number of rapes has also been on the rise in Staten Island, going from 40 in 2004 to 57 in 2009, with a peak of 66 in 2008.

Even accounting for a slight increase in population, this means the overall rape rate in Staten Island has remained static during Donovan’s time as the borough’s top law enforcement official.

This matches a general trend, in an analysis by City Hall of data from the New York Police Department and state Division of Criminal Justice Services, of crime dropping at a much slower rate in Staten Island as compared to the other four boroughs over the six years between Donovan’s swearing-in and the end of 2009.

Citywide, the rate of violent crime dropped nearly 20 percent since 2004, whereas in Staten Island, the overall drop was just over 13 percent. Violent crime dropped on average 3.3 percent every year since 2004 in the Bronx, 5.4 percent in Brooklyn, 6.3 percent in Manhattan and 3.3 percent in Queens. In Staten Island, though, the average decline in the violent crime rate was just .71 percent year-to-year during this period.

This differential between Staten Island and the rest of New York City holds true across all seven major “index” crimes for 2004-2009: murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, grand larceny and car theft. Despite steep declines citywide and in each of the other boroughs, Staten Island has had a slower than average year-to-year drop in four of the crime categories, while increasing in the numbers and rates of murder, rape and grand larceny, which dropped at least 10 percent in each borough comparing 2004 to 2009, but went up 1 percent in Staten Island.