CQ Press’s annual City Crime Rankings has declared St. Louis, Missouri, the worst urban center for crime, displacing Camden, New Jersey, which finished with the second highest crime rate after occupying the top spot last year. Other top crime-ridden cities were Detroit and Flint, Michigan, Oakland and Richmond, California, and Cleveland, Ohio.

 

The safest urban center in America, for the second year in a row, was Colonie, New York, a suburb of Albany with a population of about 80,000. In fact, several cities in New York state experienced low crime rates: Rampano, Clarkston and Amherst. Finishing ahead of these towns, but behind Colonie, were O’Fallon, Missouri and Mission Viejo, California. Among cities with a population of more than 500,000 the safest was El Paso, Texas.

 

Several cities in Illinois and Minnesota were not included in the rankings because their data collection methods for rape cases do not meet FBI standards.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Colonie, New York Has the Lowest U.S. Crime Rate Ranking (CQ Press) (pdf)

2010 City Crime Rate Rankings (CQ Press) (pdf)

Rankings by Population Categories (CQ Press) (pdf)