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After analyzing crime data compiled by the FBI, Forbes magazine reports that D.C. no longer ranks among the most violent major cities in the United States. Washington finished 16th in Forbes’ reading of figures measuring violent crime trends in cities with populations greater than 200,000, with a rate of 1,130 incidents per 100,000 residents. That rate makes D.C. about half as violent as Detroit, which topped the rankings, and safer than smaller cities like New Haven, Conn. and Little Rock, Ark.
In fact, D.C.’s crime rate was low enough that the Forbes writer who constructed the list was almost incredulous. In a sidebar published Friday, Daniel Fisher seemed a bit astonished at the changes here since the early 1990s, when the city experienced upward of 500 homicides per year. This year, though, the District is on pace to see 100 murders.
Forbes’ explanation? Bigger government and more gentrification:
The relentless expansion of the federal government — and Gucci-clad supplicants at lobbying and consulting firms — helped drive up incomes in Washington, Roman said, while the city handed out generous tax breaks to move businesses within its borders.
The city also tore down high-rise public housing towers and replaced them with garden-style apartments. Gentrification, meanwhile, drove many of the city’s poorer residents out to suburbs like Prince George’s County, where the violent crime rates spiked a few years ago, but have since declined substantially.
Of course, even though violent crime rates are dropping, the clip at which homicides are solved lags behind. Earlier this month, The Washington Post reported that of about 2,300 murders committed in the District between 2000 and 2011, more than 1,000 remain unsolved. Last year, the Metropolitan Police Department recorded 7,009 violent crimes, including 108 homicides.
Meanwhile, in Prince George’s County, there were 4,076 violent crimes reported in 2011. That’s a 17 percent drop from 2010, when there were nearly 5,000.
Still, comparing cities’ crime rates is a risky proposition. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports database advises that cities of various sizes and economic levels should not be scored against each other.
But being considered a less violent city is always nice, even when the people doing the rankings are a bit stumped by the findings.
