NeighborhoodScout, a web-based platform from Location, Inc. that delivers custom crime risk and real estate market reports, trends and forecasts, today released its annual list of the Top 30 Murder Capitals of America for 2019. The analysis is based on murder rates and population, not total number of murders.
NeighborhoodScout used the most recent crime data the FBI classifies as 'final, non-preliminary.' Based on the 2017-year total data which was released in final, non-preliminary form in September 2018, this report reveals interesting facts and patterns about crime and murder in America. Among the findings:
- The murder capital of America isn't Chicago. But it is in Illinois. With more than one murder per 1,000 residents, this year's murder capital has a murder rate 22 times the national average, and nearly 5 times Chicago's murder rate. You may never have heard of it, until now.
- The murder capital of Florida isn't Miami, but a city of 35,000 that is a scant 8 miles from the famous Mar-a-Lago Club.
- Alaska, the nation's largest and least densely populated state, now has a city with one of the highest murder rates anywhere in America.
- The vacation destination with the highest murder rate in America is located on the New Jersey shore.
"The cities with the highest murder rates reveal the connection between economic hardship and violence, particularly murder," said Dr. Andrew Schiller, CEO and founder of Location, Inc. and NeighborhoodScout. "Murder rates are highest in communities where economies were once larger and more robust but have since seen contracted, causing stress and hardship that often leads to violence and murder. This can be for a subset of a city's residents, like in Baltimore or Kansas City, or for nearly an entire city, such as Gary or East St. Louis. Limited economic opportunity plays a role in such communities and highlights the divide between the safe bedroom communities within large metro areas near major urban centers like Boston, Chicago, and New York, and the high-crime cities that often had significant industrial economies that have lost jobs and livelihoods."
Click on the cities below to go to the NeighborhoodScout site for more data. Here they are, in descending order:
30. Goldsboro, NC
29. Albany, GA
28. Chicago Heights, IL
27. Kansas City, MO
26. Camden, NJ
25. North Charleston, SC
24. Fairbanks, AK
23. Danville, VA
22. York, PA
21. Riviera Beach, FL
20. Danville, IL
19. Saginaw, MI
18. Atlantic City, NJ
17. Huntington, WV
16. Youngstown, OH
15. Alexandria, LA
14. Jackson, MS
13. Petersburg, VA
12. Bessemer, AL
11. Flint, MI
10. Baton Rouge, LA
9. Detroit, MI
8. New Orleans, LA
7. Wilmington, DE
6. Pine Bluff, AR
5. Baltimore, MD
4. Gary, IN
3. St. Louis, MO
2. Chester, PA
1. East St. Louis, IL
