Baltimore. In case you couldn't guess, Baltimore is the Most Dangerous City in America.
Usually, these "dangerous city" awards are handed out after the FBI releases its annual violent crime statistics. Since those reports aren't expected to be out until later this year, USA Today took it upon themselves to analyze other publicly available violent crime data sets. After crunching all of the numbers, they found that Baltimore had a per capita murder rate of 55.8 people murdered per 100,000 residents in 2017. That number out-paced New Orleans (40.4 murders per 100k residents) and Detroit (39.7 per 100k). Technically, Baltimore would have come in second in the per capita murder rate rankings if St. Louis, Missouri, had been added to the list. However, the analysts at USA Today decided that St. Louis was too small of a city to be included in the major metro-area rankings.
The biggest year-over-year change in homicides came in Chicago, with 112 fewer people being murdered in 2017 than were in 2016. While Chicago came in sixth place in the per capita murder rankings, their 650 murders last year dwarfed Baltimore's 343 homicides.
Baltimore actually saw 25 more homicides in 2017 than the year prior. Only three other cities -- Columbus, Philadelphia, and Nashville -- saw larger year-over-year homicide increases than Baltimore. Baltimore's rising homicide rate bucked the nationwide downward trend bolstered by record low 2017 homicide totals in major cities like New York.
Baltimore claimed the top spot in the per capita rankings because the city's population is actually shrinking. With fewer people calling the city home, even stagnant homicide totals would result in a higher per capita murder rate.
The violent crime plaguing Charm City has become a thorn in Mayor Catherine Pugh's side. Late last year, she announced that her administration was seeing a modest reduction in violent crime resulting from a surge in policing in five of the city's worst neighborhoods. Less than a month after popping the champagne, Mayor Pugh fired Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, citing rising crime as the reason for the dismissal. Violent crime and homicide statistics since then seem to be trending upwards, though it is still too soon to extrapolate trends from these numbers. With less than two months in the books for 2018, the 12 consecutive days that Baltimore went earlier this year without a fatal shooting -- the longest streak since 2015 -- are likely skewing the numbers.
Not all Baltimore residents seemed to agree with their city being named the most dangerous city in America. Resident Rachel Cybor told the local CBS affiliate that she hates that the city's violent crime statistics drive tourists away.
“It’s a shame when people who don’t come in the city and don’t experience the city, don’t have relationships here -- want to make comments about it,” Rachel Cybor said in an interview.
While there are many causes behind Baltimore's shrinking population, experts agree that the lack of safety in the city is one of the causes behind the exodus.
It is still early in 2018 to determine what this year's homicide statistics will look like, especially since homicides tend to peak in the spring and summer months.
Do you think Baltimore deserves the title of Most Dangerous City in America? Tell us what you think in the comment section below!
