The Most Dangerous Cities in America

According to 24/7 Wall St. the FBI reports that:

violent crime dropped 5.5% in 2010 while reported property crimes fell 2.8% during the depths of the worst economic slowdown since the Great Depression. The news, though, is far from positive.
Though most regions of the U.S. saw declines, the Northeast saw an increase in murders (8.3%), forcible rapes (1.4%) and aggravated assaults (0.7%). ... Even when crime rates dropped, older urban areas still had more violent crime than other cities. Philadelphia, Cleveland, Buffalo and Hartford finished high on the FBI's list.

Using the FBI report, 24/7 Wall St. created a list of the ten most crime-plagued cities in the U.S. with populations of more than 100,000.

1. Flint, MI  (22/1000 violent crime) - poverty and high unemployment
2. Detroit, MI (18.9/1000) - ditto. The median income is just $26,098, 48% below the national average.
3. St. Louis (17.5/1000) - 30% below the average income
4. New Haven, Conn. (15.8/1000) - highest on the east coast. A stark mix of poverty and the elites of Yale University.
5. Memphis, Tenn (15.4/1000) - what would Elvis do?
6. Oakland, CA (15.3/1000) - income and employment are slightly above the national averages so why the violence. May be youth gangs.
7. Little Rock, Ark. (15.2/1000) - one of the highest incidents of rape (no Clinton jokes please).
8. Baltimore (14.6/1000) - only Detroit had more murders
9. Rockford, Ill. (14.5/1000) - "unusually high violent crime rates for a city of its size".  Rockford receives traffic from the drug markets in Madison, Chicago, and Milwaukee.
10. Stockton, CA (13.8) - "rated one of the most miserable cities to live in the country by Forbes in March, 2010"

Bottom Line

24/7 Wall St. concludes,

Unemployment will inevitably improve in these cities. The most hard-hit sections, however, may never completely recover. They failed to do so after the last economic upswing -- and the one before that. Some part of all the cities on this list will be home to high levels of violent crime permanently.