Read: America’s Most Violent States
Despite the positive national trend, certain states continue to struggle with high crime rates. In many of these states, the rates of violent crime increased last year. In 2011, there were just 123.2 violent crimes per 100,000 people in Maine, the lowest violent crime rate in the country. In Tennessee, the rate was nearly five times higher. Based on the FBI Uniform Crime Report Program’s latest data, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 10 states with the highest violent crime rates.
The 10 states with the highest crime rates in 2011 were the same states found on the list in 2010, but their ranking has changed. Rates in all 10 states fell. Tennessee moved from the third most violent state in 2010 to the most violent in the country last year. In Nevada, which had the highest rate in the country in 2010, violent crimes fell from 702.2 to 562.1 per 100,000, moving it to fifth highest.
Many of the states that have the highest rates of violent crime suffer from poverty and low educational attainment. Five have among the lowest scores in both measures. However, it is far from a rule. Alaska, which has the second-highest violent crime rate, also has the third-lowest poverty rate. Maryland, which had the ninth-highest rate of violent crime in the country last year, also had the second-largest proportion of adults with a college degree.
Of the four types of violent crime, which include murder and non-negligent manslaughter (known as voluntary manslaughter), rape, aggravated assault, and robbery, aggravated assault is by far the most common. There were roughly 1.2 million cases of violent crime in 2011. Of those, more than 750,000 were cases of aggravated assault. Because this crime represents the majority of all violent crime, nearly all the states with the highest overall rates of violent crime also had the highest rates of aggravated assault.
Murders, on the other hand, accounted for just over 1% of violent crimes last year. In several of the states with the highest violent crime rates, murder rates were not higher than in the rest of the country. Alaska, which had the second-highest violent crime rate in the country in 2011, had the 26th-highest murder and voluntary manslaughter rate. On the other hand, five of the 10 states with the highest violent crime rates also had among the highest murder rates.
Based on the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 10 states with the highest rates of violent crime per 100,000 residents. Using the estimated populations and crime incidents from the UCR, which measured incidents of eight types of violent and nonviolent crime for 2011, 24/7 Wall St. calculated the incidence of the four types of violent crime per 100,000 persons for that year: murder/non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. In addition to crime data, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed median income and poverty rates for these states from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2011.
10. Arkansas
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 480.9
> Pct. below poverty line: 19.5% (4th highest)
> Pct. less than high school education: 16.2% (8th highest)
> Property crime rate per 100,000: 3,754.1 (2nd highest)
In 2011, Arkansas had the nation’s 10th-highest violent crime rate, driven by some of the nation’s highest incidences of forcible rape and aggravated assault. Violent crime was especially problematic in Little Rock, which recorded the sixth-highest violent crime rate in the country for cities with populations of 100,000 or more. The state also suffered from a high rate of nonviolent crimes. In fact, it had the second-highest property crime rate in the country at 3754.1 incidents per 100,000 people. Arkansas also had some of the nation’s highest poverty and high-school dropout rates.
9. Maryland
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 494.1
> Pct. below poverty line: 10.1% (2nd lowest)
> Pct. less than high school education: 11.2% (22nd lowest)
> Property crime rate per 100,000: 2,860.2 (23rd highest)
Although Maryland’s violent crime rate remained ninth highest in 2011, the same rank as in 2010, the number of incidences declined from 589.9 per 100,000 that year. The state also had the fourth-highest rate of murder and non-negligent manslaughter, with 6.8 incidences for every 100,000 residents. However, that was down as well from 7.7 incidences in 2010, when it was the third highest. The state’s largest city, Baltimore, is still one of the most dangerous cities in the country. However, there were fewer than 200 homicides in the city in 2011, the first time that has happened since 1977. This is despite the fact that the population also dropped in that time, by about 180,000. Baltimore still had the sixth-highest murder rate in the country for cities with populations of 100,000 or more.
Also Read: States with the Widest Gap Between the Rich and Poor
8. Florida
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 515.3
> Pct. below poverty line: 17.0% (17th highest)
> Pct. less than high school education: 14.0% (18th highest)
> Property crime rate per 100,000: 3,522.0 (11th highest)
The rate of violent crime in the state of Florida fell by nearly 100 incidents per 100,000 people, from 612.5 per 100,000 residents in 2010 to 515.3 in 2011. This rate, however, remains the eighth highest in the country. Property crime in the state was also quite high last year. There were more than 2,400 cases of larceny and theft per 100,000 people, the third-highest rate in the country. To combat crime in the state, Florida employed nearly 400 police officers per 100,000 people in 2010, according to data from the FBI, the sixth-highest rate in the country. The city of Miami reported a violent crime rate of nearly 1,200 per 100,000 people in 2011, the 17th highest in the country for cities with more than 100,000 people.
7. Louisiana
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 555.3
> Pct. below poverty line: 20.4% (3rd highest)
> Pct. less than high school education: 17.5% (4th highest)
> Property crime rate per 100,000: 3,688.5 (3rd highest)
Louisiana ranked high among all states for a host of crimes. The state had the highest murder and voluntary manslaughter rate in 2011, with 11.2 incidences per 100,000 residents. The state also had the fifth-highest rate of aggravated assault, with 401.9 incidences per 100,000 residents. Although generally not considered violent, the state also ranked third highest in property crime, including sixth highest in burglary and second highest in larceny. For every 100,000 residents, there were 867 people incarcerated in Louisiana, more than in any other state in the U.S. As of July 2012, the state’s largest city, New Orleans, had the highest murder rate per capita of all large U.S. cities.
6. Delaware
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 559.5
> Pct. below poverty line: 11.9% (11th lowest)
> Pct. less than high school education: 13.0% (20th highest)
> Property crime rate per 100,000: 3,410.6 (13th highest)
Delaware’s violent crime rate last year of nearly 560 incidents per 100,000 people was a significant improvement from 2010, when there were 636.6 incidents for every 100,000 people. Cases of violent robbery fell between 2010 and 2011, although last year’s 169.5 robbery incidents per 100,000 people was still the second-highest rate in the nation. Additionally, the rate of several nonviolent crimes related to theft rose last year, with burglary and larceny each rising from their 2010 rates.
5. Nevada
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 562.1
> Pct. below poverty line: 15.9% (23rd highest)
> Pct. less than high school education: 16.0% (9th highest)
> Property crime rate per 100,000: 2,560.5 (19th lowest)
Nevada’s violent crime rate in 2011 has fallen significantly from its 2010 levels, when the state was the most violent in the United States with 702.2 violent crimes per 100,000 people. The number of homicides in Las Vegas fell 25% in 2011 to 86 — the lowest since 1990, even as the population more than doubled during that time. Robberies in Las Vegas were also down 20% in 2011 compared to 2010. Still, Nevada is far from being violent crime free. There were 157.9 incidences of robbery and 365.6 incidences of aggravated assault per 100,000 people, the third-highest and sixth-highest rates in the country, respectively.
4. New Mexico
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 567.5
> Pct. below poverty line: 21.5% (2nd highest)
> Pct. less than high school education: 16.9% (7th highest)
> Property crime rate per 100,000: 3,531.5 (9th highest)
New Mexico had among the 15 highest rates in six of the seven types of violent and property crime reported by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report. The state ranked fourth for aggravated assault, and it had the third-highest murder rate in the country behind Louisiana and Mississippi. As of 2011, 7.3% of New Mexico adults had not finished the ninth grade, the third-highest rate in the country. Nearly 22% of residents lived below the poverty line, more than any state but Mississippi.
Also Read: Nine States with Sinking Pensions
3. South Carolina
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 571.9
> Pct. below poverty line: 18.9% (9th highest)
> Pct. less than high school education: 15.9% (10th highest)
> Property crime rate per 100,000: 3,904.2 (the highest)
In 2011, South Carolina’s crime rate fell dramatically compared to the year before, when there were 670.8 violent crimes per 100,000 people — the second-highest rate in the nation at the time. Despite declines in violent crime, criminal activity remained a problem in South Carolina last year. Incidents of property crimes occurred at a nation-leading rate of 3,904 per 100,000 people. This was up from 2010, when 3,888.6 property crimes per 100,000 people were reported.
2. Alaska
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 606.5
> Pct. below poverty line: 10.5% (4th lowest)
> Pct. less than high school education: 8.3% (4th lowest)
> Property crime rate per 100,000: 2,632.8 (23rd lowest)
Alaska does not share many characteristics with other violent states. It has the second-highest median household income in the country, as well as the fourth-lowest poverty rate. Nevertheless, Alaska had the nation’s highest rate of aggravated assault by a large margin last year, with more than 464 incidents per 100,000 people. There were also more than 58 reported forcible rapes per 100,000 people in 2011, the second-highest rate for such crimes in the nation, but down from 73.3 reported cases per 100,000 in 2010.
1. Tennessee
> Violent crime rate per 100,000: 608.2
> Pct. below poverty line: 18.3% (12th highest)
> Pct. less than high school education: 15.8% (11th highest)
> Property crime rate per 100,000: 3,595.9 (6th highest)
Although violent crime rate in Tennessee fell from 667.7 cases per 100,000 people in 2010 to 608.2 in 2011, the improvement was not enough to keep the state from becoming the most violent state, up two spots from last year. Tennessee had the second-highest rate of aggravated assault, after Alaska, with 444.5 incidences per 100,000 residents in 2011. Tennessee’s 5.8 murder and voluntary manslaughter incidences per 100,000 people was the 10th highest in the country. Memphis had the fifth-highest violent crime in the U.S. among cities with populations of 100,000 or more. While murder rates fell across the country as a whole in 2011, Memphis’ murder rate jumped 31%.
-By Michael B. Sauter, Alexander E.M. Hess, Samuel Weigley
Also Read: Small Towns with Soaring Housing Markets
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