America's safest and unsafest cities.

I can't believe that Oakland was posted in the safest cities list, they had 110 murders last year.Sheesh!

 

I'm wondering about the methodology of this survey. They have Seattle and Portland on the less-safe list, and Oakland on the more-safe list. I don't think of high crime when I think of Seattle and Portland, but Oakland is one of those places where you just don't go.

I don't see any definition of "crime" as in which crimes they are including. It just says "most reported crimes per 1000 citizens" without making any distinction between, say, jaywalking and murder. Or if any crimes are not reported, they don't count. Or if a city has a really huge population, it can make it seem like there's less crime, e.g. New York City is second on the list with 33.2 crimes/1000 citizens, but that includes a bunch of low-crime residential neighborhoods in Queens.

They're also only including cities with 300000 people, and there are only 56 cities in the country which have that many people, and they're all on either list (27 on the "safest" list, 29 on the "least safe" list), and the difference between the least "safest" city (Arlington TX, 72.1 crimes/1000 citizens) and the safest "least safe" city (Sacramento, 74 crimes/1000 citizens) is pretty minimal. They could have just put out one big list with all 56 cities on it. They're also dividing it up strictly by city limits, for example Anaheim and Santa Ana are right next to each other in Orange County CA, and have very similar demographics, but since they are two distinct cities which both happen to have more than 300000 people, they get separate places on the list.

So I feel pretty good about disregarding this survey.

On the other hand, San Jose is on top of the list, so... SCOREBOARD!

 

That really is flawed methodology, since population density, more often than not, goes hand in hand with crime. Rather than do it reported crime per capita, they should have done it reported crime per square mile.

Put it this way - when you get robbed, you don't say, "But that's okay. This is a high density neighborhood." or "I've been around thousands of people today and haven't gotten robbed yet."

 

i go out for jogging around 12 a.m. everyday. so?

 

If they're using the FBI Uniform Crime Stats, they are including the following crimes:

Murder
Forcable Rape
Robbery
Aggravated Assault
Burglary
Larceny - Theft
Motor Vehicle Theft
Arson

As far as I'm concerned, for the 'safest city' only the first four categories and arson should be included. Property crimes suck, but don't cause bodily harm to those who are victims of it.

According to this site:

http://www.bestplaces.net/html/crime_compare.asp

Here's how Oakland (a 'safe' city in that report) and Portland, Oregon (an 'unsafe' city on that report) compare. Keep in mind they are using 2000 stats instead of 2001 stats, but I doubt the rates shift that dramaticly in one year (also keep in mind the national average includes a lot of small cities, not just cities over 300k people):

Murder, Rape, Robbery, Ag. Assault
per 100k population
Arson stats were n/a for both cities

Oakland (21.4, 85.7, 516.9, 725.9)
Portland (3.7, 37.0, 278.3, 743.6)
National Average (5.5, 32.0, 144.9, 323.6)

In violent crimes, Oakland is far worse in every category except aggravated assault, where it is only marginally better. Both cities are above average for every category, except Portland for murder, which is pretty damn low.

Burglary, Theft, Vehicle Theft
per 100k population

Oakland (939.4, 3122.1, 1303.3)
Portland (1070.0, 4805.4, 907.4)
N. Average (728.4, 2475.3, 414.2)

Here, Oakland is better than Portland in everything except car theft. Both are well above the national average in everything.

I'd say that Portland is a much safer city.....then again, I've been to both cities a lot, which just reinforces that opinion.

 

Tampa --Fourth unsafest cities in the US.
We will have to try harder to be number one next time

 

Aren't San Jose cops the highest payed in the country?

 

new orleans!! wheeeeeeeeee!