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Old 07-30-2014, 05:47 PM
 
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As a foreigner I am curious as to why cities east of the Mississippi, such as Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, are more dangerous than those westward.

I always hear how safe Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Salt Lake City are but rarely hear of a really safe city in the east (aside from **some** New England cities).

Anyone care to elaborate?

P.S. I know cities in the west such as Oakland and Compton are dangerous but more cities on the west are safer than east according to stats

Sorry if I offend
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Old 07-30-2014, 06:08 PM
 
Location: Arizona
51 posts, read 159,416 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon Sew View Post
As a foreigner I am curious as to why cities east of the Mississippi, such as Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, are more dangerous than those westward.

I always hear how safe Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Salt Lake City are but rarely hear of a really safe city in the east (aside from **some** New England cities).

Anyone care to elaborate?

P.S. I know cities in the west such as Oakland and Compton are dangerous but more cities on the west are safer than east according to stats

Sorry if I offend
There are plenty of safe cities on the east, and there are a number of dangerous ones on the west. I think one reason there is a lot more crime out east is because there are way more people out there. Another reason is the demographics of cities you listed. Those cities have very high black populations, and unfortunately gang culture is more prevalent there.
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Old 07-30-2014, 07:07 PM
 
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There is a correlation between crime rates and certain demographic factors such as age and race. This has more to do with crime than what region cities are located. The good news is(as hard as this is to believe) crime rates are down significantly just about everywhere in the U.S compared to their late 80s/early 90s peak.
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Old 07-31-2014, 10:22 AM
 
Location: East Coast of the United States
27,254 posts, read 28,317,220 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon Sew View Post
As a foreigner I am curious as to why cities east of the Mississippi, such as Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, are more dangerous than those westward.

I always hear how safe Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Salt Lake City are but rarely hear of a really safe city in the east (aside from **some** New England cities).
It is not really accurate to say that eastern cities are unsafe. The truth is that the crime is highly concentrated in certain neighborhoods that are almost always low income. This skews the crime statistics.

In every city, there are affluent neighborhoods which are very safe. As long as you stick to those, there is nothing to worry about.
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Old 07-31-2014, 10:41 AM
 
Location: West Michigan
3,119 posts, read 6,563,243 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon Sew View Post
As a foreigner I am curious as to why cities east of the Mississippi, such as Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, are more dangerous than those westward.

I always hear how safe Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Salt Lake City are but rarely hear of a really safe city in the east (aside from **some** New England cities).

Anyone care to elaborate?

P.S. I know cities in the west such as Oakland and Compton are dangerous but more cities on the west are safer than east according to stats

Sorry if I offend
Your title talks about safe "states" and then you talk about safe "cities" in the post. Which one is it? There really is no such thing as a state that is completely safe or unsafe throughout. States are big.
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Old 07-31-2014, 10:44 AM
 
7,704 posts, read 12,543,156 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon Sew View Post
As a foreigner I am curious as to why cities east of the Mississippi, such as Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, are more dangerous than those westward.
All those cities have one thing in common. High black populations. If you know anything about the AA community and neighborhood, they have alot of crime.
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Old 07-31-2014, 11:04 AM
 
92,019 posts, read 122,173,887 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by allenk893 View Post
All those cities have one thing in common. High black populations. If you know anything about the AA community and neighborhood, they have alot of crime.
Even that will depend on the neighborhood, as those cities have solid to very nice mostly Black neighborhoods as well.
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Old 07-31-2014, 11:18 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, PA (Morningside)
14,360 posts, read 16,866,636 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ckhthankgod View Post
Even that will depend on the neighborhood, as those cities have solid to very nice mostly Black neighborhoods as well.
It is true though, from what I've seen, the percentage black correlates quite well with a city's violent crime rate. The main outlier on this is New York City, which has much lower crime than one would expect based upon its black population. This may be because a large proportion of the black population is not African-American, but black immigrants from the Caribbean, Africa, and Latin America.

The interesting thing is the same general trend doesn't seem to be true for rural areas. For example, Mississippi has the lowest black crime rate in the country, along with the most rural black population. Something about the intersection of African American culture and cities leads to higher crime, at least in aggregate, although when you look on a neighborhood level things can be much different, as you note.
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Old 07-31-2014, 04:46 PM
 
506 posts, read 324,917 times
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We have mountains and land here. Not cities.
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Old 07-31-2014, 11:08 PM
 
Location: Jersey City
7,053 posts, read 19,207,961 times
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Western states are not safer than eastern states.

Maps On FBI's Uniform Crime Report - Business Insider
FBI — 2012
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