The Safest and Most Dangerous Cities in the U.S.

TheEckster
Wanna go clubbing?
California, Tennessee, and Missouri all have three in a list of the top 25 most dangerous cities in the U.S. using FBI crime data.

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.

27 comments

Latest

wallanon
3 years ago
Yeah, a bunch of those safe "cities" are just suburbs. It depends on how you draw the map I suppose. Surprised at some of the dangerous places on the list.
Icee Loco (asshole)
3 years ago
Santa Clarita has a huge gang problem.


Overall I'd take these lists with a grain of salt
wallanon
3 years ago
"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.
mark94
3 years ago
Big cities with large minority populations have a lot of crime. Rich suburban areas have less crime. I’m glad they did the survey to uncover these shocking results.
wallanon
3 years ago
What counts as "large" for a minority population? Some of those "most dangerous" cities don't strike the ear like places known for that.
Call.Me.Ishmael
3 years ago
These stats can be interesting, but shouldn't be taken too literally. How the police charge crimes, as well as collect and report crime data, in all of these cities can warp the results.
shailynn
3 years ago
If memory serves me right I’ve been in 20 of the worst cities and only 7 of the best.

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?
BBBC
3 years ago
Mark94, you sound like a racist fuck. Cum over here and I will show you that a black cock will jizz down your throat the same way a white one will. Only mine is bigger and more satisfying 😉
Hank Moody
3 years ago
Original post was apolitical but the chance this thread will be political is roughly 100%.
Tetradon
3 years ago
Anchorage??? What, assault on a caribou or bear?
Warrior15
3 years ago
Not surprised to see Memphis toward the top of the dangerous ones. Although, I have my doubts on all of those "safe" CA cities.
nicespice
3 years ago
Hah, and both Lubbock TX and Springfield MO are places I’ve considered living in for both being (imo) small relatively inexpensive places that punch above their weight as far as livability.

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.
Cashman1234
3 years ago
The list appears to be a random set of cities. It’s likely garbage and possibly created by the OP to troll the folks who post their reactions.

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.
shailynn
3 years ago
Keep in mind when you read lists like this it’s important to read into what they consider “violent crimes.” If they omit domestic violence or what can be considered minor offenses the lists can change greatly once you get past the top 5 or so cities on the list.

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.
Cashman1234
3 years ago
^ true. If the list only includes non-gang related murders as the basis for the definition of violent crime then that would provide for some unusual results.
Papi_Chulo
3 years ago
"... 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 ..."

The list is from 2019
RandomMember
3 years ago
@Cashman: "It’s likely garbage and possibly created by the OP to troll..."

____________
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.
datinman
3 years ago
Any most dangerous list that doesn't include Chicago anywhere in the top 25 would seem to be flawed.
rattdog
3 years ago
along with camden, nj, i'm a bit surprised that bridgeport and new haven, ct are not on the danger zone list as well. maybe all 3 cities have experienced a decrease in crime rates within the past several years?
rattdog
3 years ago
that's right. chicago is not on the list as well. so i can safely assume that the fbi is reporting faulty and false data?
Papi_Chulo
3 years ago
The lists can differ w.r.t. the counts being total #s vs per capita - e.g. Chicago is a huge ass city thus they may be lower on the list and not even make the top 25 on a per capita basis
ilbbaicnl
3 years ago
Chicago has some very dangerous neighborhoods, but also a lot of fairly quit ones, which makes for a lower per capita crime rate.
ilbbaicnl
3 years ago
Related question: Why do low-crime cities always seem to have tame, boring strip clubs?
bkkruined
3 years ago
crime spiked recently. FBI stats are published slowly, I doubt they have a report on 2020 yet.

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.

mike710
3 years ago
As far as I know, I've been to 30 of the 50 total. Some of the "safe" places are such small suburbs of big cities that I might have been to more on the list and didn't even realize I was there.

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.
Icee Loco (asshole)
3 years ago
Police violence hate crimes the presence of far right groups domestic violence and drug presence should be factored into any safety equations.
Tetradon
3 years ago
^ And they're microscopic next to the amount of actual street crime taking place.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…
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