September 19, 2006
FBI Report: D.C. Most Dangerous 'State'
Written by DCist contributor Lindsay Gibson.
As noted by Wonkette, the FBI released it's annual crime survey Monday and things for the District are looking grim. Or maybe not. This year's report is a complicated read and D.C. is practically alone in having clear statistics for our city.
We had 195 murders in 2005, which comes to 35.4 per 100,000 citizens. That's actually down from 198 in 2004, but still higher per capita than all the states.
But how about cities like Detroit, New Orleans and Baltimore; traditional contenders for the "America's Murder Capital" moniker? Their crime rates are another story. The murder stats for each metropolitan area aren't broken down with any sense of uniformity, and therefore it's almost impossible to parse out cities from their state numbers.
In Illinois, for example, there are 7 cities listed and it's easy to figure out where Chicago stands: 15.9 homicides per 100,000. In Louisiana, however, 67 cities are listed and New Orleans isn't even one of them.
The reason may be the FBI's intentional attempt to avoid such comparisons.
The report included a missive against media outlets ranking cities by rates of violent crime, calling the practice "merely a quick choice made by the data user [that] provide no insight into the many variables that mold the crime." They warn that "many factors influence statistics." Some of these factors include "degree of urbanization" and local "attitudes about crime."
In fact, it's easy to find the nation's most urbanized areas. And I don't know much about say, Boise, but in the District our attitude tends toward Crime = Bad.
So we'll wait for the experts to crunch the numbers, but if the 122 murders so far this year and our famous "Crime Emergency" are any indication, D.C. may face another discouraging report next September.
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By that logic, why would 122 murders to date presage "another discouraging report next September"? At that pace, 2006 would have 170 murders, which represents a %12.8 decline from 2005. Nothing to brag about, but probably not as dire when viewed against comparable cities against Washington rather than states vs the District.
In Louisiana, however, 67 cities are listed and New Orleans isn't even one of them.
Think that had anything to do with NO losing over half it's population? Pompeii also experienced a significant decline in violent crime after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. If Ramsey wants to get tough on crime, he needs to invest less in gun buybacks and more in manipulating tectonic plates.
They warn that "many factors influence statistics." Some of these factors include "degree of urbanization" and local "attitudes about crime."
Don't forget all those crimes that aren't even reported because the witnesses don't want to get shot to death while holding an infant.
Yes, despite popular legend, DC violent crime is still on the decline year over year. But I guess the common person would never figure that out due to the consistent and gross over-exaggeration of our culture's media institutions.
Washington D.C., the city, always gets caught up in different levels of statistics and the resulting confusion that it causes. We are compared against other cities. We are compared against states. We are sometimes even compared against countries. But yet, DC is still just a city.
The confusion only points to the need for our nation's policy makers to re-examine and correct our status in a fair, logical, and meaningful way.
In this particular report's case, if we are the most dangerous "state", then we darn sure need to be a real "state" then.
Three cheers for Otavio. I mean, really. If the feds want to report the District as a "state," then they should treat us as such. Unlike other "states," we don't control our our purse strings, don't have voting reps or senators, etc. etc. They can't have their cake and eat it, too.
PS: State status would make us the only 100% urban state, which would still mean comparisons to other states would be unfair/misleading.
And since I am mildly irritated over all of this, here is another good one:
I was reading an article about visiting DC, and there was a line in there stating something like DC isn't as safe as it used to be. Excuse me? According to what statistics? Obviously not real ones. Once again, the mighty media slaps us in the face. Thanks mighty media institution for spreading the mistruths!
Also, the United States Department of Justice and its Federal Bureau of Investigation, being an extension of the United States Federal Government, degrades us once again. We are no longer nowhere near being the Murder Capital, so the Feds throw us in there against the States. There is no easier way than that. Now we are the Most Dangerous State. Thanks again Feds!
otavio_dc: you're thinking of this recent NYTimes travel article. See number 7 in the article.
Thanks Dan!
>As noted by Wonkette, the FBI released it's annual crime survey
"it's" means IT IS.