(No Ratings Yet)
In a recently published and highly disputed report Detriot was named the most dangerous city in America, and somewhere Eminem is basking in his increased (though, no longer really valid) “street cred”.
The study drew harsh criticism even before it came out. The American Society of Criminology launched a pre-emptive strike Friday, issuing a statement attacking it as ‘‘an irresponsible misuse’’ of crime data.
The 14th annual ‘‘City Crime Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan America’’ was published by CQ Press, a unit of Congressional Quarterly Inc. It is based on the FBI’s Sept. 24 crime statistics report.
The report looked at 378 cities with at least 75,000 people based on per-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft. Each crime category was considered separately and weighted based on its seriousness, CQ Press said.
After each catagory was rated, the cities were given “crime scores”. Zero would be the national average. Detroit sat at 407, with St. Louis nipping at it’s heels with 406. Maybe next time St. Louis. The lowest score went to Mission Viejo which rests in the affluent Orange County (or, the O.C. for those who love teen melo-dramas) who’s score was -82. I guess high school infidelities and nights of drunken debauchery don’t rate high on the scale. Or is that not what Orange County is really like. Eh, it doesn’t matter, I believe everything I see on T.V.
So why is there controversy about this list anyway? It sounds pretty straight forward.
Detroit was pegged the nation’s murder capital in the 1980s and has lost nearly 1 million people since 1950, according to the Census Bureau. Downtown sports stadiums and corporate headquarters — along with the redevelopment of the riverfront of this city of 919,000 — have slowed but not reversed the decline. Officials have said crime reports don’t help.
The rankings ‘‘do groundless harm to many communities,’’ said Michael Tonry, president of the American Society of Criminology.
‘‘They also work against a key goal of our society, which is a better understanding of crime-related issues by both scientists and the public,’’ Tonry said.
‘‘You’re not comparing apples and oranges; you’re comparing watermelons and grapes,’’ said Rob Casey, who heads the FBI section that puts out the Uniform Crime Report that provides the data for the Quitno report.
The FBI posted a statement on its Web site criticizing such use of its statistics.
‘‘These rough rankings provide no insight into the numerous variables that mold crime in a particular town, city, county, state, or region,’’ the FBI said. ‘‘Consequently, they lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that often create misleading perceptions adversely affecting communities and their residents.’’
So basically, what they’re saying is this- just because a city has more rapes, murders, assaults, robberies, and the like- doesn’t mean it’s more dangerous than any other city. And also, if it is more dangerous than any other city- it’s bad to say because it means the people who are opposed to living in dangerous places and can afford to do so- will leave. Which of course means all that will be left are people who either don’t care about the violence and such, or they’re involved in it, or they want to leave- but can’t really afford to. Which creates a cycle of increases in such things, because there’s less decent folk around to do something better with the city.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t? Eh, at least I don’t have to worry about where I live-
The study excluded Chicago, Minneapolis, and other Illinois and Minnesota cities because of incomplete data.
Sweet.
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