The Santa Clarita Valley’s violent crime rate for the first 11 months of the year is up by 21 percent over the same period in 2011, according to data released Friday by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

That’s actually an improvement over figures from earlier in the year, when the rate spiked by nearly 50 percent. The last several months, the increase in violent crime has slowed.

The biggest increase during 2012 has come in forcible rape, which is up by 72 percent locally over 2011. The increase was even more dramatic in three of the Sheriff Department’s 22 other reporting areas, namely Crescenta Valley, Malibu/Lost Hills and Cerritos, where forcible rape is up by a whopping 167.2 percent.

Aggravated assault is up by 22.8 percent across the SCV this year. On the flip side, this month’s figures show zero homicides from Jan. 1 to Nov. 30, which is interesting because two murders were shown in the statistics a month ago, reflecting the deaths of two people in a house in the Happy Valley section of Newhall. From the numbers, it appears the Sheriff’s Department is no longer investigating those deaths as homicides. (The murder of another Newhall man occurred in early December, so it’s not included in the January-November numbers.)

Property crimes in the SCV increased by 6.1 percent from January to November compared to the same period in 2011, with grand theft auto showing the greatest increase at 28.3 percent.

The combined total increase in Part 1 crimes – violent crime plus property crime – is 7.6 percent in the SCV so far this year.

Countywide, Part 1 crimes have increased by 4.06 percent during 2012.