How is El Paso so much safer than the other Texas big cites?

[Pink90]

This is why I laugh when people who on these forums are convinced El Paso is "dangerous". I guess they think Juarez and El Paso are the same or something...?

[kidicarus89]

Originally Posted by Pink90

This is why I laugh when people who on these forums are convinced El Paso is "dangerous". I guess they think Juarez and El Paso are the same or something...?

And then laugh again when those people are from Houston, L.A., or Chicago, all cities much more dangerous than our thankfully "boring" El Paso.

What's nice about EP is that there are really only two section of the city that are considered relatively dangerous - a small triangle hemmed in by three major streets on the Northeast side of town, and some parts of the poorer Lower Valley. A person could buy a house pretty much anywhere in the city and be assured a safe existence, something I wasn't able to do when finding an apartment in Dallas.

Also, this whole theory of "El Paso is safe because crime is committed in Juarez" is built on shaky logic as Juarez crime is dominantly cartel-related while El Paso crime is mostly of the domestic variety with some local drug-related crime. Two separate groups of criminals. Drug-related crime in El Paso does NOT automatically link it to cartel crime across the border.

[SoundNinia]

Originally Posted by lookintomove15

That's what I don't get. Here we have El Paso, a city with not alot of white people in it and it's one of the safest big cities in the nation. Because generally the more the city's minority population, the more dangerous the city will be.

Take a look.

Murder Rate
Houston 9.8
San Antonio 5.1
Dallas 11.4
Austin 3.0
Fort Worth 6.1
El Paso 1.5

Non-Hispanic White Population
Houston 26%
San Antonio 26%
Dallas 30%
Austin 50%
Fort Worth 41%
El Paso 14%

Anyone have any ideas why that is?

Oh it must be because whites never cause or commit any crimes right?

Well apparently by statistics, neither do hispanics. Is that a good enough answer?

[AuburnAL]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

You didn't finish out your chart. Texas is more than just white and Hispanic.

African American Population
Houston 25%
San Antonio 7%
Dallas 25%
Austin 8% (and falling rapidly)
Fort Worth 19% (and falling)
El Paso 3% (mostly middle class retired military)

There was thread a few weeks back on the Austin board about this. While the black population inside The city limits of Austin is falling the Austin metro area has added about 30000 black residents over the same period of time,

[JJG]

Why do I get the feeling that this thread was made ONLY to point out crime stats against "certain groups of people"...?

[DanielWayne]

Originally Posted by SoundNinia

Oh it must be because whites never cause or commit any crimes right?

Well apparently by statistics, neither do hispanics. Is that a good enough answer?

Good one!

[verybadgnome]

Originally Posted by RayStokes

The only problem with that theory is that regardless of their religious and family-oriented culture, pretty much across the country Hispanics are statistically much more likely to be involved in violent crimes than Non-Hispanic whites. You can sociologically dissect the reasons behind that any number of ways, but numbers don't lie. El Paso's low crime rate has to do with race as much as 1 or 2 things:

1. Crime is under reported

or

2. Juarez absorbs most of the crime


or both.

#1 seems plausible for some crimes, but I would think that murder is not one of them. Maybe add in missing persons would make it more reasonable and thus comparable.

Still I haven't seen a good theory for EP and its low crime. They really make Houston and Dallas look bad.

[TT Dave]

Interesting discussion. It doesn't sound like there's any solid explanation for El Paso's low crime rate. No matter what the reason is, good for El Paso! I visited El Paso for the first time back in the mid 90's. I liked it there and wouldn't mind living there.