Most Dangerous Cities in the US

[Zuni]

SAFEST MOST DANGEROUS
1. Newton, MA 1. Camden, NJ
2. Brick Twnshp, NJ 2. Detroit, MI
3. Amherst, NY 3. Atlanta, GA
4. Mission Viejo, CA 4. St. Louis, MO
5. Clarkstown, NY 5. Gary, IN
6. Lake Forest, CA 6. Washington, DC
7. Thousand Oaks, CA 7. Hartford, CT
8. Colonie, NY 8. New Orleans, LA
9. Cary, NC 9. Richmond, VA
10. Dover Twnshp, NJ 10. Birmingham, AL


Cities of 500,000 or more (32 cities)
SAFEST MOST DANGEROUS
1. San Jose, CA 1. Detroit, MI
2. El Paso, TX 2. Washington, DC
3. Honolulu, HI 3. Baltimore, MD
4. Austin, TX 4. Memphis, TN
5. New York, NY 5. Dallas, TX
6. Louisville, KY 6. Philadelphia, PA
7. San Diego, CA 7. Columbus, OH
8. San Antonio, TX 8. Nashville, TN
9. San Francisco, CA 9. Houston, TX
10. Fort Worth, TX 10. Phoenix, AZ


Cities of 100,000 to 499,999 (198 cities)
SAFEST MOST DANGEROUS
1. Amherst, NY 1. Atlanta, GA
2. Thousand Oaks, CA 2. St. Louis, MO
3. Irvine, CA 3. Gary, IN
4. Simi Valley, CA 4. Hartford, CT
5. Sunnyvale, CA 5. New Orleans, LA
6. Sterling Heights, MI 6. Richmond, VA
7. Livonia, MI 7. Birmingham, AL
8. Stamford, CT 8. Richmond, CA
9. Orange, CA 9. Jackson, MS
10. Santa Clarita, CA 10. Tampa, FL



Source: Morgan Quitno Corp

[AllegroRondo]

1. El Paso one of the safest?

I don't buy that.

I lived there for two years, and the gang problems were really bad. Some parts of town you just did NOT drive through after dark because of the gunfire.

[jackelope72]

9. Seriously.

I've lived about an hour away from El Paso since I was 6 years old; it is NOT a safe place. I remember when I was in high school, I bought my Mom one of those things that connect your steering wheel to your brake pedal so your car won't get stolen. She never used it, except when we went shopping in El Paso.

[AllegroRondo]

18. ah yes, the "club"

I was stationed at Ft Bliss. during orientation they highly recommended buying one and using it if you ever parked off post. I remember them saying cars would be stolen and across the border in under 10 minutes.

[Champ]

53. Murder, rape, robbery, and burglary are below the National average

Assault, Larcerny, and auto theft(barely) are above the national average. But based on what you say it probaly isn't one of the safest.

http://www.bestplaces.net/city/cccrim.aspx?Lcity=0446000&Rcity=4824000&LcityName=Mesa%2c+AZ&RcityName=El+Paso%2c+TX& (Used my hometown to compare)

[Celeborn Skywalker]

69. I think it's due to a low murder rate

I read in the paper a couple of years ago that El Paso only had like ten murders that year. El Paso has roughly 600,000 people,so that is a really good stat.

[bif]

2. Nice to see Detroit leading the nation in something!

n/t

[theboss]

59. In fairness, the numbers were based on the crime rate at basketball arenas

Thank you. I'll be here all week.

[Robeson]

68. OUCH!!

[trotsky]

3. I had no idea Atlanta was so dangerous.

Any Georgians have some insight? What is it - gangs?

[Champ]

21. Everything

I just used my city because they only had the option to compare but look at the rates for the National Average, Mesa, AZ, and Atlanta, GA. Those are incredibly high numbers.
http://www.bestplaces.net/crime/crime.aspx?Lcity=0446000&Rcity=1304000&LcityName=Mesa,%20AZ&RcityName=Atlanta,%20GA&=

[Phentex]

39. I'd say drugs

which lead to the robberies, etc.

[commander bunnypants]

4. yah, richmond

CB

[DeminGa]

5. hummm...

I'm in Georgia. Granted, I live outside the city but in an area considered to part of the metro area. A suburb if you will

Personally, I had no idea Atlanta was that bad either! The news we watch is out of the city, the reports I see wouldn't lead me to that conclusion. The times I've spent downtown I didnt feel threatened.

I come from Connecticut, lived there til I was in my late 20's. Let me tell you, New Haven Ct is a frightening place to live!! Drive by shootings, gangs, lots and lots of drug activity (the yale students keep that business thriving!)

As a matter of fact I am headed back there tomorrow and am not excited about it. The city is depressing and the fear is ever present. You have to always be aware of where you are, who is around you etc etc

I'd take Atlanta over New Haven or Hartford anyday!

One thing to consider maybe, is the size of Atlanta. Even though we have a certain population, its spread out over a huge area. I believe metro atlanta is bigger than my home state of CT! For example....2 shootings could take place in 'Atlanta" but still be a 40 minute drive from each other

[Champ]

51. Damn your right about New Haven

They are higher then the national average in every statistical category. These stats are based on crimes per 100,000 population. Atlanta is still higher but didn't realize that about New Haven.

http://www.bestplaces.net/crime/crime.aspx?Lcity=0952000&Rcity=1304000&LcityName=New%20Haven,%20CT&RcityName=Atlanta,%20GA&=

[DeminGa]

63. Thanks

Great link comparing New Haven with Atlanta

[underpants]

8. WE'RE #9! WE'RE #9! WE'RE #9!

Maybe Wilder can move us up

[livinginphotographs]

15. You beat me to it...

n/t

[underpants]

19. I move here 10 years ago-161 murders that year

but hey 1/2 were solved, now about the bank robberies.......

[commander bunnypants]

40. specially the watchoviya on cary

that place is hit weekly


CB

[Phillycat]

24. DAMMIT, I was just going to post WE'RE NUMBER 6!!

You take all the good jokes. :(

[underpants]

33. HA!

Where would Philly rank in sandwiches though?

:bounce:

[Phillycat]

34. Sandwiches #1, modesty about sandwiches # Last.

:bounce:

[BlueJazz]

6. And Naturally the majority of safe places are in Blue areas......

and conversely least safe are in Red areas...

[yellowdogintexas]

7. Except for Fort Worth, unfortunately red, but #10 in the safest

cities of 500K..we knew our city was improving.

HOWEVER, Shrub's cutting of funds to support additional officers to police forces is going to impact that, just you wait and see. Our biggest improvement in public safety in this city occured when guess who was in the White House?


Of course



Good ole Big Dawg

[Frogtutor]

25. Texas has 4 big cities in the top 10 safest...

El Paso (2)
Austin (4)
San Antonio (8)
Fort Worth (10)

Unfortunately, the two largest Texas cities were in the top 10 most dangerous:

Dallas (5) (of course, those of us in Fort Worth knew this already)
Houston (9)

Still, all in all, I think Texas comes out looking pretty damn good!

Frogtutor

[yellowdogintexas]

35. agreed... safest place in Texas may be...

downtown Fort Worth at night LOL
between the mounted cops, the bicycle cops, the Bass Boys on their
scooter/people movers we got it covered!

[RivetJoint]

10. Really?

You really think those high-crime urban areas voted for Bush?? VERY doubtful. Why do some have to try and make EVERYTHING Red/Blue, when it's not like that at all?

[Zuni]

13. I live 20-30 miles from both Baltimore and DC, in a blue state

and they are 2 and 3 on the most dangerous cities over 500,000. Baltimore is at least 75% democratic, and DC voted 91% for Kerry.
I used to live in Baltimore, a blue city in a blue state and there are many places in Baltimore you just do not want to go after dark.
Southeast DC, where Nader got more votes than Bush in 2000, is about the worst place I have ever seen.

[RivetJoint]

14. AA C ounty?

I live in Crofton.

[Zuni]

17. Yes. Where in crofton?

I live in Annapolis but I have many friends in Crofton

[RivetJoint]

20. Chapman Farm

[Zuni]

26. Off of Reidel?

small world

[RivetJoint]

28. Sure is

[RivetJoint]

29. Dupe

[MisterP]

56. Mission Viejo here is blood-red; it's safe because the police force

comprises, what, a tenth of the population?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

11. Only reason my town of New Haven didn't beat Hartford is that they didn't

report their crimes

[DeminGa]

41. HEY!!!

Another New Havener!!

Small world. Have a "Doodle" Burger for me would ya

[arwalden]

12. 2) Washington and 3) Baltimore... I suspected as much

Even when I go into DC during the daylight hours, I feel uneasy.

[Zuni]

16. It depends where you go

DC has some very, very nice neighborhoods (mostly in upper NW) and Baltimore is a great town. I used to live up by Johns Hopkins and where Memorial Stadium used to be and I never had any trouble in that neighborhood. My apartment up there was my favorite apartment I ever lived in. It was a converted rowhouse (actually a huge row mansion) and it had a lot of character.

[RivetJoint]

23. True

And DC is sort of undergoing a revitalization...Only SE, and parts of SW and NE, are really bad.

[theboss]

45. That's still 3/4 of the city

The "safe" part of DC is growing. It used to be considered from about 16th Street Northwest towards Georgetown/Rock Creek Park. Now, it easily extends to 12 Street Northwest and maybe even 10th. But there is still crime in those neighborhoods. Most of Southeast, aside from Capitol Hill, is horrifying. Northeast is improving in sections but is still bad. And Southwest isn't really even big enough to discuss.

[arwalden]

30. Even In The North West, I Keep My Eyes Open

I'm just nervous that way, I suppose.

[theboss]

46. No part of DC is 100 percent safe

Granted, I went to law school in Pittsburgh and in most of the city, I felt like I could walk naked with hundred dollar bills glued to my body and feel safe. DC is not like that. I had a friend robbed at gunpoint at 6 PM in Dupont Circle. I've had two friends robbed at knifepoint near Adams Morgan.

[XNASA]

22. MISSING CITIES

Guess we have our own category.

"This year, several cities of 75,000+ population did not report complete crime information and thus were not included in the Safest Cities rankings.

Chicago and Other Illinois Cities: For several years, rape numbers submitted by cities in the state of Illinois have not met the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) guidelines. This remains the case with 2003 crime data. According to state statisticians, the state of Illinois tracks "sexual assault," which includes not only female rapes, but also offenses such as male rape, sodomy, etc. For these reasons, Chicago and other Illinois cities once again are not found in this year's Safest City rankings. However, Chicago and other Illinois cities are included in our book City Crime Rankings for all of the other crimes.

In the past, our award has received criticism because it omits Chicago in its rankings. While we understand this concern, it is our view that it is more important that rape be considered an important crime and kept in our methodology. However, to see how Chicago might fare in our rankings, we calculated a separate, internal ranking that took rape out of the formula. Under this scenario, Chicago came in as the 38th most dangerous city."

[DrGonzoLives]

27. Gary is only fifth?

Well, fuck, they've softened up. It must be practically a paradise there now.

Oh, for the militant red vs. blue people, Gary is a VERY VERY blue party of Indiana. It's basically Chicago as far as that goes. Sorry to rain on your "We're so great because we're blue" parade.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

37. I like Gary

I live near there and I like it precisely because it's not a pretentious asshole town like many of the towns southeast of it. It's run down, but that's due to the economy. Everyone I have ever met there has been nothing but nice.

[Frogtutor]

31. Cool stats; thanks for posting them! BTW, do you know what

kind of crime stats were used? Like, was it just violent crimes, or everything? I noticed the posts about El Paso, and I thought maybe if just violent crimes were used, then things like car theft are left out of the picture...

Frogtutor

[Lavender Brown]

32. Colonie, NY? How random

I didn't even know it counted as a city.

[KamaAina]

42. All those "cities" in the Top 10 safest are really suburbs

come to think of it, 9 out of the 10 safest in the 100-500,000 pop. range are suburbs. Only Stamford could maybe, possibly be considered a "city".

[ProfessorGAC]

36. Dangerous, Schmangerous! Pikers, All

My little town has a higher murder rate than any of those cities mentioned. Of course, we only had 3 murders, but there's only 5500 of us. (And we had zero for the prior 5 years, but i'm not letting details get in my way.)

But, my town is the most dangerous, and i will flog anyone who says otherwise. Detroit, Houston, Tamps, and rest can kiss my rear. We're WAY more dangerous than them!

See, i told you guys i was distrubed.
The Professor

[XNASA]

43. It's true. I've been there.

I feared for my life the entire time.

[ProfessorGAC]

44. Awwww! No Fear Was Necessary

You were with The Don. If you are my friend, then they will fear you.
The Professor

[coolhandlulu]

38. Whew!!!!!

We're just poor and jobless in Cleveland...not dangerous.

[amazona]

47. huh new orleans is only number 8?

We're in a real crime wave right now, I'm a little surprised. There have been lots of multiple murders too. The other day some dude killed 4 members of his family and burned the house down. Stuff like that. You really wonder what's in the water lately. But I think it was even worse under Reagan/Bush, there was actually a year where we were number one for murders in the late 1980s.

[kitkatrose]

48. Yeah, baby!

The cities I frequent the most are 2-4 on the list of 500,000+ pop. Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! :eyes: :(

[name not needed]

49. Camden! Whoo!

:P

[Zuni]

50. why are the next state over suburbs really bad?

Jersey City and Hoboken, Gary Indiana, East St. Louis, Camden---all across a river from a big city, all hellholes

[theboss]

52. Those aren't really suburbs

They are all smaller cities that have basically gotten swallowed by a larger metro area.

[Zuni]

54. satellite cities is a better term, in retrospect

You are correct. They are cities in their own right. Calling Camden a suburb is like calling Annapolis a suburb of Baltimore.

[theboss]

58. I went to college in Jersey; I know these places

New Jersey and Connecticut cities are almost all troubled - though a few like Jersey City and Hoboken have been improving recently. All these cities basically went through the same phenomen. Loss of jobs, causing a collapse in real estate, causing an influx of poor people from the larger cities seeking cheaper rents, causing - for lack of a better term - white flight, causing more loss of jobs, causing further collapse of real estate, and so on and so forth. What makes New Jersey and Connecticut so interesting is the extra layer of corruption that gets thrown on top of this. There is more money to be made in impoverished areas than anywhere else if you are an utterly corrupt politician, since everything eventually comes under government control. The government takes over a property and then sells it. And that's where the kickbacks come in.

[Zuni]

60. very interesting---Organized slum creation

make allies with banks, developers, construction, demolition etc, and you can make a fortune blockbusting through graft and kickbacks.
Alot of these cities were marked for destruction in the 1950s when banks, developers and politicians all realized how much money could be made by making endless suburbs. That is when they start red-lining neighborhoods in cities like NYC, Philly, Detroit, Baltimore, Newark--- blockbusting whole sections of the city at a time.

[Zuni]

55. You know your cities

I find Urban areas fascinating---architecture, layout, density, neighborhoods
I should have become an urban planner

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

67. Obviously haven't been to Hoboken or Jersey City lately...

Hoboken has turned into a very nice city. And Jersey City is definitely coming up. A LOT of theatre people are moving into Jersey City and it's getting a lot of nice areas. It definitely is a lot better than it was when I was young and lived in Union City (which still basically sucks).

[wickerwoman]

70. It's terrible to say,

but 9/11 was a godsend to Northern NJ. I read that something like 60% of the office space in Manhattan was in the WTC. All those companies had to relocate somewhere and many of them will probably stay.

At least something good (no matter how small) came out of the tragedy.

[AlFrankenFan]

57. Misson Viejo and Irvine, CA are really close to me

I live in Laguna Niguel...not sure about our safety rating...dang those Mission Viejo people (their marching band is so damn good :P)!

[dean_dem]

61. All right Richmond! We're #9! We're #9!

I think we also got #2 in the state for STD infections. What a place to be...

[underpants]

62. No I think we are #1 in the nation in STDs

but I could be wrong. I think it is a close race between us and Baltimore depending on the STD.

Welcome to DU :hi:

[mvd]

64. Philly has highest crime rate in PA, but..

Reading especially, Norristown, and Lancaster sometimes get overlooked. They're a lot worse than you'd expect. Drugs are a big reason.

I live in a safe suburb in Montgomery County, PA.

[jdots]

65. Westport Conn. & Beverly Hills C.A.

are homes to some very big white collar criminals who will never do time.Don't forget Crawford Texas.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

66. #10 Safest=Dover, NJ???

It's not an unsafe town, but I live about 25 minutes away in Madison. Madison is definitely much safer. The towns immediately surrounding Dover, such as Rockaway & Randolph are also safer. Weird. I think Dover has the highest crime rate in Morris County.