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.
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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