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From what I was able to read on KCCI, they think the Des Moines murders this year are more of an outlier or are related to drugs coming into the city. I live in a DSM for a year back in 2012, and I thought it was extremely safe. Omaha always had a reputation for more crime.
With that said, if someone were to kill their kids, wife, and themselves, one incident like that a year can pull the murder rate way up in somewhere like Des Moines. The numbers would look bad, but that doesn't mean the underlying reality on the ground would have changed much, especially if the killings are domestic or among people who know each other.
I'm pretty sure that 2017 is anomaly. The bulk of the homicides happened before summer officially started. Since late June, there have been "only" 2 homicides. DSM is still less than 10 homicides away from breaking its all-time record, but there's no guarantee that it'll happen (though back in March/April, it was on pace for over 40).
There isn't a discernible pattern of homicides, but there seem to be a lot more domestic disputes (the latest one, the victim was stabbed to death by his own brother at a family event).
Columbus is having a rough year with roughly 45% more homicides this year compared to this time last year.
Some reasons for this occurrence
A) Heroin is rampant in Ohio and significantly worse than a lot of other states.
B) There are much more triple and double homicides this year in Columbus so more people are dying on average in each shootings here than in years past.
C) The city's central core and north/northwest sides are thriving. The city's east and west sides are declining in large swaths and are extremely impoverished and undeserved.
D) Most of other sizable Midwest cities have large African-American communities that are historically disenfranchised/have significant numbers of people living in poverty.
Rough breaks downs of African-Americans in Midwest cities
Do Omaha and Lincoln have a lot of poverty? How are they compared to Des Moines? I have always thought poverty breeds crime more than race. Murders are usually the result of gang/drug activity and those things thrive where concentrated poverty does.
That doesn't explain Des Moines' murder rate, which is at least double Omaha's this year, despite similar or lower black population %.
Why is this a concern for the OP? Do we want a HIGHER murder rate?
Btw, KC and STL have serious issues!
Des Moines' rate this year, so far, is far higher than its basically ever gotten in an entire year. It's a huge anomaly and highly unusual.
Likewise Omaha is having a very low rate compared to normal.
Normally Omaha gets far more murders than Des Moines, and far more than its peer cities like Madison, etc. Back a few years ago the entire Des Moines metro area had 5 murders.
Tulsa, Kansas City and St. Louis always have very high homicide rates, I wouldn't just look at them to compare to for the Midwest as a whole.
Last edited by Chicago60614; 08-08-2017 at 09:43 AM..
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