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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFBI stats say Tennessee is most dangerous state in US
You might think that going to California, Texas or New York exposes you to a lot of crime. But in fact it was Tennessee that had the nation's highest violent crime rate last year.
The FBI's latest statewide statistics offer a snapshot of the underside of the 50 states: where violent crime is most likely to occur. According to the FBI, violent crime includes murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the states with the highest rates of violent crime in the country.
While violent crime rose just under 1% nationally in 2012, the trend for the past 20 years has been steady decline. Crime peaked in the late 1980s, fueled by the crack cocaine epidemic. Beginning in the early 1990s, crime began to decline. Although the exact cause remains unclear, experts have pointed to factors such as better policing, demographic changes, higher incarceration rates, a drop in cocaine use and the introduction of a variety of social programs.
In an interview with 24/7 Wall St., Urban Institute senior fellow John Roman pointed out that the crime decline has not been uniform. It has improved markedly in some large cities, like New York, Dallas and Washington, D.C. However, the decline has been less impressive in cities like Baltimore and Detroit, where economic and racial segregation limit the ability of the poor to move into the middle class.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20131006/NEWS/310060098/FBI-ranks-Tennessee-most-dangerous-state-US
B Calm
(28,762 posts)abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)Tennessee is beautiful, but man its cities can suck.
Nashville has much higher violent crime rates than Chattanooga, Chattanooga doesn't even make the top 100 list -
http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/neighborhoods/crime-rates/top100dangerous/
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Though those stats don't surprise me. Memphis and Chattanooga I know, though obviously Chattanooga is safer than Memphis.
SQUEE
(1,315 posts)But this strikes me as a tad racist, the whole Memphidishu, or Mogadishu on the Mississippi thing, the meth industry in Grundy county for example, where the families that once did 'shine have started on the meth manufacturing, there is heartbreaking poverty "on the Mountain".. and an insane level of casual violence, as well as people disapearing into the woods, there are places that you just do not go even armed 'round here.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)I grew up before meth really hit, and I left during its heyday, and only come back to visit, but it's really terrifying.