[GOTFIVEONIT]

Detroit declared most dangerous US city

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

DETROIT - 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.

[Wolfn]

Hasn't it been American's most dangerous city for the past two decades?

[Deel]

Originally Posted by Wolfn

Hasn't it been American's most dangerous city for the past two decades?

that's what i said
doesn't change anything though
i love that place

[Wolfn]

Originally Posted by Deel

that's what i said
doesn't change anything though
i love that place

I don't. Whenever I go there, it's cloudy and gray all the time, and it's just crazy there. Not to mention really dangerous too.





Damn, it sounds just like Silent Hill

[SaidAbdullahofDarfur]

Awww...chicago used to have that title...

Incomplete Data...bah...We'd probably be number 1....

[GOTFIVEONIT]

Originally Posted by SaidAbdullahofDarfur

Awww...chicago used to have that title...

Incomplete Data...bah...We'd probably be number 1....

i was thinking the same thing too when i read that part haha

[AM415]

reminds me of the clip from Scary Movie 3:

YouTube - The Beautiful City of Detroit

[sally]

Originally Posted by GOTFIVEONIT

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.

Great. I'm gonna be in one of those places for a while.

And seriously, Birmingham, Alabama? It seems like an okay city. Not terrible, not great. Actually feels kinda tame.

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.

.

I'm having a really hard time believing that Sugar Land is one of the safest U.S cities.

[shadha]

Wow, Philly didn't even make the top 5? Damn. That speaks volumes for the cities that did.


shadha-

[iTz_NoT_Me_iTzZu]

Originally Posted by sally

I'm having a really hard time believing that Sugar Land is one of the safest U.S cities.

haha seriously. that's a darn lie, the whole houston area is crime ridden

[MujahideenRyder]

hhhmmm 8 mile?

[MossadConspiracy]

i'm surprised baltimore isnt higher on the list

but yeah detroit is a nightmare