The Safest and Most Dangerous Cities in the U.S.
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Based on average rates of crime per 100,000 population, the top 25 most dangerous cities are:
1. St. Louis, MO
2. Memphis, TN
3. Detroit, MI
4. Springfield, MO
5. Baltimore, MD
6. Little Rock, AR
7. Cleveland, OH
8. Oakland, CA
9. Kansas City, MO
10. Stockton, CA
11. South Bend, IN
12. San Bernardino, CA
13. New Orleans, LA
14. Wichita, KS
15. Anchorage, AK
16. Chattanooga, TN
17. Milwaukee, WI
18. North Charleston, SC
19. Tulsa, OK
20. Rockford, IL
21. Houston, TX
22. Nashville, TN
23. Lubbock, TX
24. Baton Rouge, LA
25. Peoria, IL
And the top 25 safest cities are:
1. Cary, NC
2. Thousand Oaks, CA
3. Allen, TX
4. Irvine, CA
5. Murrieta, CA
6. Frisco, TX
7. Simi Valley, CA
8. Sterling Heights, MI
9. Gilbert, AZ
10. Edison Township, NJ
11. Santa Clarita, CA
12. Cape Coral, FL
13. Port St. Lucie, FL
14. Lakewood Township, NJ
15. McKinney, TX
16. Surprise, AZ
17. League City, TX
18. Woodbridge Township, NJ
19. Pearland, TX
20. Provo, UT
21. Meridian, ID
22. Amherst Town, NY
23. Glendale, CA
24. Orange, CA
25. Round Rock, TX
Despite the high crime rates in some cities, evidence in the FBI data show that, overall, the crime has been lessening, and that trend is likely to continue. Crime has dropped in recent years, often by double digits. Similarly, some of the top 25 most dangerous cities have seen double digit percentage drops in crime.
This is based on the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting database for the year 2019 (the most recent year available).
Source - https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/201…
What about the safest cities?
The states with the most cities in the top 25 safest list: California (7), Texas (6), New Jersey (3), Florida and Arizona (tied with 2).
Bedroom communities, which are within large metro areas and near major urban centers like Los Angeles, Dallas, and New York, make up some of the list.
These safe communities within the urban/suburban fabric of America’s largest metropolitan areas often combine access to high-paying jobs in the urban center, decent schools, and a high quality of life. This access to opportunity increases home values, with the result often being lower crime.
For example, Santa Clarita, CA, one of the cities ranked the safest, which is in close proximity to Los Angeles, Burbank, Long Beach, and other business and financial hubs, making it appealing to professionals. Families also appreciate Santa Clarita’s combination of top public schools, low crime rates, and owner-occupied single-family homes.
These location qualities — top schools, low crime, single family homes — appear repeatedly among states with the largest number of cities making the list, including California and Texas.
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Overall I'd take these lists with a grain of salt
It looks like a stats list, so you could have issues like presence of gangs that don't show up in the numbers they're crunching.
How come the article says crime is dropping in double digits while all I read is how crime is rapidly increasing in several large cities especially in ones where they are cutting back hours of police forces? Also, what is the reason for the claim of decline in crime? Are even criminals not wanting to go back to work these days?
Crime is something that peaked in the early 90s and has consistently fallen since. Pretty sure I’ve read somewhere that homocides spiked in 2020 though, it would be interesting to find an updated ranking since 2019.
I don’t believe this at all. No mention of Camden NJ on the most dangerous? This is like a listing of top extras locations that excludes Detroit.
The one I love on that list is Detroit. Yes Detroit proper is awful but 20 minutes away Detroit has some of the nicest suburbs in all of the Midwest flush with the big 3 engineering and exec dollars.
The list is from 2019
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I doubt that. The OP clearly states that the crime data is normalized to the population. By presenting per-capita crime data, it emphasizes smaller places and vice versa.
What @Spice said about crime consistently falling since the early 90s is correct. And proving @McNulty correct, I'll state that the notion that our cities are dystopian nightmares with out-of-control violent crime is a Trumpian myth to get the law-and-order vote. However, there was an increase in homicides during Covid.
List brings back memories of CA. Irvine is a diverse place -- but it's almost half Asian at this point. Old long-term GF (5.5yrs) in my 20s lives there now. Another GF from early 20s lived in Simi Valley.
A lot of the California cities listed as safe are just large neighborhoods. The kind of places you could drive through daily for a year and never know where they are of that you were there. Probably true of most of those place, not just the ones in California.
I made it to 4 of of the top 5 in 2019!!! Only missed the strip clubs in St Louis cause there really aren't any, without going to Illinois.
Some cities missing from the dangerous list are surprising like Las Vegas, Portland, Seattle and San Francisco. In the last 3 cities, brazen burglaries and robberies take place because prosecutors refuse to prosecute what they think are minor crimes. I grew up near San Francisco and always loved going there until the last time I went in 2019 and didn't even feel safe walking near the convention center in the middle of the day.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…