Crime in Montana (Helena, Poplar: home, low crime, diversity)

[decembergirl]

I keep reading post about our low crime and all that but do you really think we have lower crime than other states because we are all a bunch of law aibding citizens or it is because we still have that "lower" population that co-exists with the lower crime rate?

For people who think we don't have icky crimes here like they do in the big cities there was a law clerk here in Helena who was stabbed to death by a couple of boys while walking home one evening so that they could steal his empty wallet. We have the same stuff here, just less of it. For now.

[JoeJoeMan]

Just listen to the news at night, people get murder on a pretty regular basis around here. Not to mention we get our share (maybe more) of the murder your parent/spouse and chop'em into little pieces type of cases. Nope the big cities don't have alot on us. I think big cities are more into the random murder thing where as here it's more a of family/neighbor thing, not to say we aren't improving our standing in the random act of violence department, like kids shooting car owners who interfer with them while they are trying to break into their cars. Such is life these days.

[mica]

"Rate' would indicate data compiled against population figures, like xx number of murders per 1,000 people. Less crime is less crime, lower crime 'rate' would be lower crime adjusted for population, usualy represented as per 1,000 or 100,000 persons, to which it is compared.

Here is a link to the FBI Uniform Crime Report by State
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_04.html

[decembergirl]

Poplar once had the highest murder rate per capita.

[AQHA]

I think the meth problem has caused a real crime jump over the last few years. Also, as the population goes up our crimes will go up too.

There does seem to be a lot more big crimes than we saw in the past... Just the other day I read in the Helena paper that a guy was sitting in his living room and 4 people kicked in the door and beat him up and robbed him. Its just happeneing more and more.

[privacywanted4]

Did anyone see Dateline NBC the other night? Please see my post about it under the "What is Poplar, Montana like thread and let me know what you think, if you saw the show please? If you missed it, you can probably watch it online.

[jimj]

Originally Posted by privacywanted4

Did anyone see Dateline NBC the other night? Please see my post about it under the "What is Poplar, Montana like thread and let me know what you think, if you saw the show please? If you missed it, you can probably watch it online.

So what's the point?

[grizzfan]

Well, those who believe that Montana is a violent crime fest waiting to happen are wrong. MT, ID & WY have similar low crime rates, MT ~281.5/100K as of 2005 and dropping. ND & SD are quite low, 99.2/100K for ND; Compare that with CA - 526.3, MI - 552.1, NJ - 354.7, DC - 1459!, DL - 632, and MN - 702.2.

So, while not good, it's not as bad as much of the rest of the nation. Part of this might be due to the relative homogenous population in Montana as compare to states with big cities, etc. So much for the negative parts about "diversity"!

You can see my source at:

Violent Crime Rate by State - Swivel

Tom

[privacywanted4]

Originally Posted by jimj

So what's the point?

The point is... how do you think this case was handled by Poplar law enforcement officials and the citizens who are denying they know anything about the murder? Do you think he's guilty or not?

[jimj]

Originally Posted by privacywanted4

The point is... how do you think this case was handled by Poplar law enforcement officials and the citizens who are denying they know anything about the murder? Do you think he's guilty or not?

I guess what I wanted to know is why post this same question in several different threads?
I'm guessing most people here either don't know about it or more likely don't live in the area so it's really not our issue. Just because it's on some tv show doesn't mean they told the truth or even close to it, remember it's tv...