Most Dangerous States In America (Tennessee Ranked 5th)

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Clarksville ain't no peach, either. I've had two cars broken into in the back yard, in the last couple years. I've seen gang violence, too. Anywhere there is a metropolitan area,

there is usually a higher crime rate.

[mikegideon]

I'm in a hotel in downtown Greenville, SC right now. This place is cleaner and cuter than dowtown Franklin, TN. But, as we were walking back from dinner last night, there were scattered signs of thugginess. My friend, who has lived here all his life (fairly upscale lifestyle) was talking about SWAT doing a drug raid on his street.

It's everywhere.

[Guest BigNoise]

These reports use the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports put out every year. Basically, the UCR is a yearly report of all crime KNOWN to the police. So, here lies the issue. In a city with a 2008 population of around 680,000 such as Memphis, of course there is going to be more crime, there are much more police than many other areas! The problem is, these reports fail to account for population size when calculating (or ranking) crime. Example:

All data from UCR 2008/Memphis

Murder and Non-negligent manslaughter 138

---------------------------------------------- X 100,000 = 21 per 100,000

Total Pop. 672,046

So, for every 100,000 people living in Memphis in 2008 there were 21 murders, makes feel a bit safer huh?

Lets Compare that to Knoxville in 2008:

Murder and Non-negligent manslaughter 28

---------------------------------------------- X 100,000 = 15.2 per 100,000

Total Pop. 184,559

So, for every 100,000 people living in Knoxville in 2008, there were 15.2 murders. Not to far off of Memphis.

My point is, don't always trust these "rankings". Go to the FBI's website and look for yourself. In fact, they have even issued a warning against these "rankings" directly on their site and their attempt to use raw data to scare the living daylights out of us!

[Guest BigNoise]

I have to wonder why they give the same weight to each type of crime. Do they consider burglary to be as heinous as rape or motor vehicle theft as bad as murder?

How is Florida 6th with higher numbers in every category but robbery and motor vehicle theft, and a total of 65 compared to Tennessee's total of 57. Maryland had 45 rapes and a total of 86.

I don't get it.

Often what is called the "hierarchy rule of crime" is considered when reporting crime. This means that the "worst" crime is reported to the FBI by local LEAs. Also, the FBI considers 8 types of crime as index crimes, or the worst. Those include:

homicide and non-negligent manslaughter

robbery

forcible rape

aggravated assault

burglary

larceny/theft

motor vehicle theft

arson

And as I stated before, these "rankings" use the term rate very loosely, and often fail to consider population size.

[Guest BigNoise]

I think I'll stay in Halls. The last news worthy incident we had was ten years ago.

I'm in Halls too! But moving to Memphis later this year.

[Guest BigNoise]

Murders or rapes?

Year .Population .Index .Violent .Property. Murder .Rape Robbery assault Burglary Theft Theft

2008 24,326,974 1,092,134 123,564 969,570 1,374 8,014 37,753 76,423 230,123 654,097 85,350

The funny (well not really) part is if you go to the FBI's website, 50 of those murders were with shotguns. More than any other state by a long shot.

[Chief07]

Yep, but the chances of being run over by a speeding car are almost zero

Holy Crap! I came from "Trenton New Jersey".(The Saprano State)

I thought I was safer in Tennessee................................

To tell you the truth, I don't belive the poll. New Jersey really, Really sucks.

Nothing can be a dangerous and bottom of the barrel as New Jersey.

[LastRebel70]

I live in Northwest Tenn where we have nothing but small towns and my parents church has been broken into about 6 times recently. So these crimes don"t just happen in Memphis and Nashville.

[Guest jackdm3]

If you were to suggest that all town/cities in TN are EQUALLY worthless, I would not argue with you. Just sayin'.

[Links2k]

I live in Northwest Tenn where we have nothing but small towns and my parents church has been broken into about 6 times recently. So these crimes don"t just happen in Memphis and Nashville.

Thank you. Some people would have you think that nothing happens outside of the Memphis city limits. Crime is everywhere.

[Guest Chandler]

yeah but honestly I have lived in alot of major cities in the world in some very suspect places, such as Queens NY/ Harlem, Berlin, Sao Paulo Brazil, Bejing China , etc and I can say that Tennessee is no where near what other places are. The good thing about TN is that you KNOW where the places are that are dangerous, unlike other cities and town where it may be spread out, most places in TN are pretty obvious where trouble is lurking.

[Mike.357]

there ought to be a list of most dangerous zip codes.

[Guest PapaB]

there ought to be a list of most dangerous zip codes.

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