FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2004

The FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2004 has been released. I always find it interesting to dig through this stuff. What I find most interesting are the Violent Crime statistics which include murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. The UCR covers the entire country, region by region, state by state and city, over 10,000, by city. Last year they also had information on towns under 10,000 and Excel files with the basic data. This year I don’t see the towns under 10,000 and I’ve only found PDF files.

Anyway, some numbers and rankings.

Overall violent crime has dropped in the US from a rate of 475.8, incidents per 100,000, in 2003 to a rate of 465.5 in 2004. Murder dropped from a rate of 5.7 to one of 5.5. Rape dropped from 32.3 to 32.2. Robbery dropped from 142.5 to 136.7 and assault dropped from 295.4 to 291.1.

The Northeast had the lowest violent crime rate at 390.7, followed by the Midwest, an eyelash higher, at 391.1 (in 2003 the Midwest beat out the Northeast 399.5 to 401.9). The West was third at 480.7 and the South had the worst rate at 540.6.

The Northeast also had the lowest murder rate at 4.2, followed by the Midwest at 4.7, then the West at 5.7 with the South bringing up the rear with a rate of 6.6.

You were least likely to be robbed in the Midwest with a rate of 116.8, followed by the West with a rate of 136.5. The Northeast was third with a rate of 143.6 and, you guessed it, the South bringing up the rear again at 145.6.

You had the least chance of getting beat up in the Northeast with a rate of 220.6 followed by the Midwest with a rate of 233.2. I’m sure by now you know that the West was third with a rate of 305.4 and, last again, the South at 354.3.

The lowest incidence of rape was in the Northeast at 22.4, followed by the West at 33.2. The South finally wasn’t last, it was third at 34.1 and the Midwest brought up the rear in this category at 36.4.

The state with the highest crime rate was South Carolina with a whopping rate of 784.2. The state with the lowest crime rate was North Dakota with a rate of 79.4. North Dakota had the distinction of being the only state with a violent crime rate under 100. The next best was Maine with a rate of 103.5.

The state with the highest murder rate was Louisiana with a rate of 12.7. Louisiana was the only state with a murder rate above 10. The next worse was Maryland with a rate of 9.4. The states with the lowest murder rate were North Dakota, Maine and New Hampshire, all with a rate of 1.4.

The state with the highest incidence of rape was Alaska with a rate of 85.1!! The next highest states were New Mexico with 54.6 and Michigan with 54.2. The state with the lowest incidence of rape was New Jersey at 15.3, followed by West Virginia at 17.6 and New York at 18.8.

The top 10 states in violent crime are South Carolina-784.2, Florida-711.3, Maryland-700.5, Tennessee-695.2, New Mexico-687.3, Louisiana-638.7, Alaska-634.5, Nevada-615.9, Delaware-568.4 and California-551.8.

Illinois, home of Chicago, was ranked 11th at 542.9. Texas, the home of Houston and Dallas, was ranked 12th at 540.5 and New York, the home of New York, was ranked way down at 21st with a rate of 441.6.

Looking at cities is always a little problematic since the UCR simply supplies raw data for cities and towns of population 10,000 or greater. I extracted and calculated the violent crime and murder rates for 36 U.S. cities. Urban areas are typically, but not always as we’ll see, MUCH higher than other areas.

Of the 36 cities, the city with the highest violent crime rate was St. Louis with a rate of 2,057.9, followed by Atlanta at 1,842.0 and Baltimore at 1839.4. The city with the lowest rate was San Diego with a rate of 528.7. There are 12 STATES with a higher violent crime rate than the city of San Diego!

The city with the highest murder rate was New Orleans with a rate of 56.0, followed by Baltimore at 43.5 and Detroit at 42.1. The city with the lowest murder rate was Seattle with a rate of 4.2! There are 29 STATES with a higher murder rate than the city of Seattle. Hell, the NATIONAL murder rate at 5.5 is higher than the murder rate in the city of Seattle!

The city with the highest incidence of rape was Cleveland with a rate of 112.5, followed by Minneapolis at 102.1 and Cincinnati at 97.5. The city with the lowest incidence of rape was New York City with a rate of 17.6! Incredibly 48 of the 50 states had a greater incidence of rape than New York City! Only New Jersey at 15.3 was lower. West Virginia had the same rate of 17.6.

Of the three largest cities in the country, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, Chicago had the highest violent crime rate at 1,253.2, followed by Los Angeles at 1,107.3 and New York, way down, at 687.4. Four STATES had higher violent crime rates than New York City!

Chicago also had the highest murder rate of the three at 16.9, followed by Los Angeles at 13.4 and New York at 7.0. There were six STATES with a higher murder rate than New York City. You had a higher chance of being murdered in Louisiana, Maryland, New Mexico, Mississippi, Nevada and Arizona then you did in New York City!