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Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities in the U.S.

Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities in US


There are several ways to determine if a city is an affordable place to live. People consider such factors as housing prices, taxes, and cost of living. But there is one very important factor that has less to do with affordability and that is the crime rate. Statistics on crime rates in each city include murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary and car theft.

CNN Money Magazine recently released a list of the top ten cities with populations of 250,000 or more and ranked them based on crime rates. The source of the data was FBI information from 2011. Here are the top ten.

#1 Detroit - came in first place with 342 murders in 2011 and the highest assault rate of any other major city. Murder rate is 48.2 per 100,000.

#2 - St. Louis - with a population about half that of Detroit, St. Louis has a murder rate of 35.3 per 100,000 residents.

#3 - Oakland, CA - not only does Oakland have a murder rate of 26.3 per 100,000, it is also one of the worst cities for gang violence. It also has the highest rate for robberies of any large city in the U.S.--851 per 100,000 people.

#4 - Cleveland - this city's murder rate is 18.6 per 100,000, and it has a big problem with robberies, the second highest in the U.S.

#5 - New Orleans - has the highest murder rate at 57.6 per 100,000--nine times higher than New York.

#6 - Newark, NJ - murder rate is 33.8 per 100,000. Newark's crime rate increased 11 percent in 2011 when the recession forced the city to cut back its police force by one sixth.

#7 - Atlanta - this southern city has had a history of violent crimes as well as increases in assults and robberies. Atlanta's murder rate is 20.7 per 100,000.

#8 - Baltimore - this city has a particular problem with drugs and gang violence. It is estimated that 70 percent of its murders are related to drugs. Baltimore has a murder rate of 31.3 per 100,000.

#9 - Memphis, TN - has the third highest aggravated assault rate in the U.S. Its murder rate is 17.9, still four times the national rate of 4.7.

#10 - Kansas City - experiences high murder rates as well as aggravated assaults. It has a murder rate of 23.4 per 100,000.

Rankings were based on overall crimes. Murder rates are based on percentage of murders per 100,000 residents.


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