America’s Most Dangerous and Safest Cities
Morgan Quitno Press recently published its annual City Crime Ranking which ranks 384 cities with 75,000 population or more across the country based on per-capita crime rates reported by the FBI. Serious crimes considered in the study include murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft. According to the publisher, each crime is weighted equally and the weighted numbers in each category are added together to generate an overall score.
After falling to the second place behind St. Louis, MO in WCBS880.com, the top 25 dangerous cities with their respective scores are:
- Detroit, MI: 407.2
- St. Louis, MO: 406.2
- Flint, MI: 381.0
- Oakland, CA: 338.9
- Camden, NJ: 323.8
- Birmingham, AL: 268.8
- North Charleston, SC: 254.3
- Memphis, TN: 245.6
- Richmond, CA: 245.1
- Cleveland, OH: 244.4
- Orlando, FL: 237.4
- Baltimore, MD: 236.7
- Little Rock, AR: 233.8
- Compton, CA: 223.6
- Youngstown, OH: 222.0
- Cincinnati, OH: 218.3
- Gary, IN: 214.0
- Kansas City, MO: 203.4
- Dayton, OH: 201.5
- Newark, NJ: 197.3
- Philadelphia, PA: 192.9
- Atlanta, GA: 189.9
- Jackson, MS: 188.8
- Buffalo, NY: 187.8
- Kansas City, KS: 187.6
At the other end of the spectrum are cities with lowest crime rates, including
- Mission Viejo, CA: -82.1
- Clarkstown, NY: -81.0
- Brick Township, NJ: -78.7
- Amherst, NY: -75.4
- Sugar Land, TX: -75.4
- Colonie, NY: -74.6
- Thousand Oaks, CA: -73.8
- Newton, MA: -73.5
- Toms River Township, NJ: -72.7
- Lake Forest, CA: -71.7
- Irvine, CA: -71.1
- Orem, UT: -70.6
- Round Rock, TX: -69.4
- Cary, NC: -68.6
- Greece, NY: -68.5
- Chino Hills, CA: -63.2
- Coral Springs, FL: -62.0
- Troy, MI: -61.8
- Farmington Hills, MI: -61.7
- Centennial, CO: -61.3
- Glendale, CA: -59.2
- Broken Arrow, OK: -58.8
- Parma, OH: -58.8
- Sterling Heights, MI: -58.5
- Simi Valley, CA: -58.5
As you can imagine, the cities in the most dangerous list are not happy about the ranking, which only took the raw numbers without any context. And the publication of the report has been criticized by U.S. Conference of Mayors, as well as the FBI. However, I do feel the report has values, though itself is not perfect. If a city has a crime rate that’s 100 times higher than the city I am living in, I’d think twice before considering a relocation.
Related Articles You Don't Want To Miss
- 2007 Safest Cars from IIHS
- Safest Cars from Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
- 2007 Safest Cars: No American Made
- Bank of America Introduces No Fee Mortgage
- Fraudulent Email in the Name of Bank of America
- Another 0% BT from Bank of America. What to Do with the Money?
- $35 Gift Check From Bank Of America
- Recent Bank Findings: Provident NJ Direct 3.25% APY and Bank of America Fork 2.20% APY
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
- Pingback by Weekend Links: Finally Getting Productive Edition on November 25, 2007 @ 2:28 pm
Tweetbacks
9 Comments
Share Your Thouhgts
Your opinion matters. Please use the form below to share your thoughts on America’s Most Dangerous and Safest Cities with us.Recent Entries
- Weekend Linkage – July 5, 2009
- Bank of America $25 Bonus for Using Online Bill Pay
- optionsXpress Platinum Visa Card Offers 12-month 0% Balance Transfer
- Ally Bank Accounts Fully Functional, But …
- A Look at OptionsHouse for Stocks and Options Trading
- ShareBuilder $25 Bonus Promotion Code
- A New Day, A New Job
- Pre-Order Windows 7 and Save
- Learn Options Trading with TradeKing’s Options Playbook
- Quicken Promotion Codes
- Ally Bank Online Savings Account Opened
- What Can You Expect to See on Your Credit Reports?
- I Hate IGoBanking
- Friday Deal: Amazon Flip HD Camcorder Sale
- Alternatives to MS Money
- Did TurboTax Mis-calculate My Recovery Rebate Credit?
- Where Is Gold Heading to?
- American Express Online Savings Account 2% APY
- Free Online Money Management Tools That Make Your Life Easier
- House and Job Update
- New PineCone Research Sign Up Link
- Strep, House, and Job
- Chase Introduces Ultimate Rewards
- Ally Bank Made Significant Rate Changes
- EverBank Raises Money Market Account Bonus Rate to 3.01%
Awesome, I have spent most of my life in or around two of the top 3 more dangerous cities. I’m so glad I moved!
Interesting, New Orleans didn’t make the top 25 and we continue to get a bad rep as being dangerous.
maybe you are a lil worried abt Citibank.. you actually said “CITI-crime ranking”
Not sure about the credibility of the ranking. But I am aware of this annual ranking, been lived in St. Louis County (city is next door neighbour) for 7 years.
I do believe Detroit and St. Louis are two of the most segregated cities are the US, after all these years.
K: Thanks for pointing it out
Yeah, I guess mind was on my stocks 
STLPLace: I have been to St. Louis once and the city looked nice though. As a visitor I probably just looked at the surface.
I think it’s interesting how quickly the crime levels fall off. Once you get to Memphis, the difference between consecutive cities gets pretty small (average 1.6%, with a couple ~5% drops). Not to mention the huge drop between Camden and Birmingham. So there are essentially 5 cities that need serious attention.
I’m surprised that Ohio shows up with four cities in the top 25. How many of these towns used to depend on manufacturing for their industrial base? Flint’s woes have been well-chronicled. The correlation with racial division and inequality of opportunity sticks out, too.
{Sarcasm}
Go Oakland and Richmond! Yay! You guys finally are making it to the top. Keep reaching for the stars and maybe one of you will be #1 next year.
{/Sarcasm}
yea thats right i live in Ohio and i got dem 2 cities with me….guess what my city will be on there one day