It seems like many cities with great economies have higher crime then cities with good economies (sales)

[midwestecon]

It seems to defy common sense but and I can attest based on experience in certain cities. That many metro areas that are economic powerhouses have core cities with much more violent crime then bad economy cities.

I took a trip to Reno, Nevada. The town has evidence of extremely bad economy at every turn. The unemployment rate in the area is 9.8% and the area has slipped back into negative year after year job growth. Yet it seems the police department is very bored here. I looked at the crime statistics and the city had a total of 7 homicides in 2012 which is about 3 per 100,000 residents. The violent crime rate is just over 400 per 100,000 residents which is unusually low, but not that low for many cities of similar size.

Cities such as Sacramento, Fresno and Las Vegas have far lower violent crime rates then one would expect for their size. But yet all three of those cities have above 10 percent unemployment and have been economically depressed for about 5 years already.

Then there are cities like Oklahoma City, Omaha and Cincinnati which are economic powerhouses. With a tremendous amount of high-value commercial property with-in their cities. Have extremely low unemployment rates and can afford every tool to address social issues but yet some how they can't get there high rates of shootings and homicides in balance.

Oklahoma City last year despite having the lowest unemployment rate of any metro area over 1 million people had 99 homicides for just over 500,000 people. Omaha has also had a very rough summer comperative to it's population that made some national headlines. However, Omaha on a per-capita basis has an extremely high amount of corperate wealth and a good sales tax and property tax base to draw from.

Even the Detroit Metro area has far more wealth on a per-capita basis then many sun-belt cities. But yet it's central city just filed for bankruptcy. Wayne County has a much lower unemployment rate then the Island Empire, California and even slightly lower then Las Vegas. But Detroit has about 55 homicides per 100,000 residents, compared to 5 per 100,000 in Clark County, NV which is Las Vegas.

[unusualfire]

That don't mean anything. Drug dealers don't work. If they see new people dealing their territory that take them out. It's that simple.

[sweat209]

Las Vegas despite what some think is not vice city or loaded with drugs like many other cities .Yes there is lot of prostitution in Las Vegas but most are not because they are drug addicts .

Cities like San Diego , San Francisco , Phoenix ,Tucson and Austin have lot of drugs because close to the border .Most drugs go into US go to San Diego and make way up west coast and drugs go to Phoenix and spread eat .

The state of Nevada is too small .Major drug traffickers go to big cities and place by the border.

Sacramento, Fresno and Las Vegas is too small you not going get high crime there.