Detroit declared most dangerous US city

[Rico]

Ah, the city I was born in and drive down to work in every day has been declared the most dangerous.  How sad.   :ohwell :police

Detroit declared most dangerous US city

By DAVID N. GOODMAN, Associated Press Writer 38 minutes ago

In another blow to the Motor City's tarnished image, Detroit pushed past St. Louis to become the nation's most dangerous city, according to a private research group's controversial analysis, released Sunday, of annual FBI crime statistics.

The study drew harsh criticism even before it came out. The American Society of Criminology launched a pre-emptive strike Friday, issuing a statement attacking it as "an irresponsible misuse" of crime data.

The 14th annual "City Crime Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan America" was published by CQ Press, a unit of Congressional Quarterly Inc. It is based on the FBI's Sept. 24 crime statistics report.

The report looked at 378 cities with at least 75,000 people based on per-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft. Each crime category was considered separately and weighted based on its seriousness, CQ Press said.

Last year's crime leader, St. Louis, fell to No. 2. Another Michigan city, Flint, ranked third, followed by Oakland Calif.; Camden, N.J.; Birmingham, Ala.; North Charleston, S.C.; Memphis, Tenn.; Richmond, Calif.; and Cleveland.

The study ranked Mission Viejo, Calif., as the safest U.S. city, followed by Clarkstown, N.Y.; Brick Township, N.J.; Amherst, N.Y.; and Sugar Land, Texas.

CQ Press spokesman Ben Krasney said details of the weighting system were proprietary. It was compiled by Kathleen O'Leary Morgan and Scott Morgan, whose Morgan Quitno Press published it until its acquisition by CQ Press.

The study assigns a crime score to each city, with zero representing the national average. Detroit got a score of 407, while St. Louis followed at 406. The score for Mission Viejo, in affluent Orange County, was minus 82.

Detroit was pegged the nation's murder capital in the 1980s and has lost nearly 1 million people since 1950, according to the Census Bureau. Downtown sports stadiums and corporate headquarters — along with the redevelopment of the riverfront of this city of 919,000 — have slowed but not reversed the decline. Officials have said crime reports don't help.

Detroit Deputy Police Chief James Tate had no immediate comment on the report. But the mayor of 30th-ranked Rochester, N.Y. — an ex-police chief himself — said the study's authors should consider the harm that the report causes.

"What I take exception to is the use of these statistics and the damage they inflict on a number of these cities," said Mayor Robert Duffy, chairman of the Criminal and Social Justice Committee for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

The rankings "do groundless harm to many communities," said Michael Tonry, president of the American Society of Criminology.

"They also work against a key goal of our society, which is a better understanding of crime-related issues by both scientists and the public," Tonry said.

Critics also complain that numbers don't tell the whole story because of differences among cities.

"You're not comparing apples and oranges; you're comparing watermelons and grapes," said Rob Casey, who heads the FBI section that puts out the Uniform Crime Report that provides the data for the Quitno report.

The FBI posted a statement on its Web site criticizing such use of its statistics.

"These rough rankings provide no insight into the numerous variables that mold crime in a particular town, city, county, state, or region," the FBI said. "Consequently, they lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that often create misleading perceptions adversely affecting communities and their residents."

Doug Goldenberg-Hart, acquisitions editor at CQ Press, said that the rankings are imperfect, but that the numbers are straightforward. Cities at the top of the list would not be there unless they ranked poorly in all six crime categories, he said.

"The idea that people oppose it, it's kind of blaming the messenger," Goldenberg-Hart said. "It's not coming to terms with the idea that crime is a persistent problem in our society."

The report "helps concerned Americans learn how their communities fare in the fight against crime," CQ Press said in a statement. "The first step in making our cities and states safer is to understand the true magnitude of their crime problems. This will only be achieved through straightforward data that all of us can use and understand."

The study excluded Chicago, Minneapolis, and other Illinois and Minnesota cities because of incomplete data.

___

Associated Press writer Jim Salter in St. Louis contributed to this report.

[markinro]

Think we need to pay Mr. Goodman a visit and "convince him" otherwise :)

[space_invader64]

It is in Robocop!!!

[Blackride]

It is in Robocop!!!

Yeah, they need Robocop to get teh city back from teh thugs!

[billybob476]

I blame Eminem. DAMN YOU!

[jedijeff]

If it makes you feel better Rico, I live in the Murder Capital of Canada.

[billybob476]

If it makes you feel better Rico, I live in the Murder Capital of Canada.

Ottawa?

[jedijeff]

Edmonton, I believe it over took Ottawa last year

[space_invader64]

Right now I live in wewoka ok.  A very small town.  Population, 3,562 and dropping.  No movie, no wal-mart, almost nothing.  Around the time I was born, Wewoka was mentioned on the Tonight show with Johnny Carson as the murder capital of the us per capita.  In the 90s, Paul Harvey called it little Chicago.  In the 70's there was someone shot or stabbed all the time. The post office stands where people used to be executed in the 1800s.

[shark087]

hmm, somehow this doesnt shock me at all.

[Rico]

Welcome shark!  Actually it shocked me a bit.  I've been to many places where I felt less safe than in Detroit.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Hmm, really?  Detroit the most dangerous?  naaaa.  I would say NYC is more dangerous.  But admittedly I've never been to either.  Oh well

King Linksr

[space_invader64]

I think what makes a place dangerous is not the number of violent crimes, but number of violent crimes by people the victum doesn't know.  When people drink and do drugs, they often get into deadly fights.  That doesn't make that place as less safe if there are gang drive by shootings and home invasions.

[The IC]

If it makes you feel better Rico, I live in the Murder Capital of Canada.

so is that like 5 deaths a year?

[The IC]

Detroit is a pit. 

The suburbs are nice, but Detroit has many burned out and abandoned buildings.  A friend and I went to the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Detroit, and I couldn't believe the urban decay.