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The very best way to determine if an area has a problem with crime is to find out what neighborhoods (on a block by block basis) in your city have high incarceration rates or a high total number of incarcerated inmates.
Crime stats are not the greatest indicators of crime due to several factors.
-The national average for reporting crimes to the police is 40% in the USA.
-Inner city neighborhoods are less likely to report crimes. My estimate is 20% of crimes are reported in the inner city. Maybe less. On the other hand I estimate at least 60% for suburban areas.
-Police departments fudge crime statistics. Especially major cities with real estate and tourist interest.
-Crimes are sometimes classified differently depending on what area you are from. What may be a felony in one city may be a misd in another. Crimes can also be classified completely differently. For example, if someone snatches a phone out of your hand in NYC that is not a Robbery. It's a Grand Larceny (and sometimes petit or lost property but that's another story). Even though the phone was taken using force.
Easy way to figure out how big a problem incarseration is in your area is yearly prison expenditure. I will use Brooklyn, NY as an example:
Notice the areas with high concentrations of red such as neighborhood 3, Bed-stuy, Brooklyn. These neighborhoods have high crime/poverty rates. More people getting locked up. Compare that to neighborhood 10 which is Bay Ridge. Low crime/poverty rate. Few people getting locked up.
There you go. A simple, accurate way to decide where to live in terms of crime. A lot of criminals means a lot of crimes. A high rate of prison incarcerations means that a lot of felony crimes are taking place. Over and over again. A lot of ex cons. Criminals.
This does sound like a good way to find out if a neighborhood has a crime problem.Hustla,do some of those grey areas have high poverty too,because if they do,than poverty and crime aren't always connected.Brooklyn looks like a block to block place,you could be in a safe block,non crime infested,than go a couple blocks down and be in the worst crime area of the borough.In Bed-Stuy through it looks like most of the non-crime infested blocks are surrounded by crime infested blocks,the Northwest corner looks to be the best area of Bed-Stuy.
This does sound like a good way to find out if a neighborhood has a crime problem.Hustla,do some of those grey areas have high poverty too,because if they do,than poverty and crime aren't always connected.Brooklyn looks like a block to block place,you could be in a safe block,non crime infested,than go a couple blocks down and be in the worst crime area of the borough.In Bed-Stuy through it looks like most of the non-crime infested blocks are surrounded by crime infested blocks,the Northwest corner looks to be the best area of Bed-Stuy.
All ghettos have similar characteristics, Brooklyn is not alone. The trick is to distance yourself completely from these red blocks. You see these are based on residence, not location of where they were locked up. Most criminals effect a max area of about 5-10 blocks from where they live. That is pretty much the circle of influence. A lot of those blocks that are not red are retail, parks, schools, vacant lots, ect. In every ghetto there are those quiet blocks, but for the most part even they are effected by the overwhelming amount of illegal activity. What makes it a high crime neighborhood is more hot blocks then quiet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike in TN
You could also find out if the neighborhood has section 8 tenants.
I wouldn't go on section 8. Your neighborhood might have almost no section 8's but a low income public housing project down the block. Too many different low income housing programs.
So Im guessing that basically all of Bed-Stuy-3,4,8,16,9,and maybe even 5 are pretty bad.
Yup and there are more.
3 is Bed-stuy, a poor Black neighborhood.
4 is Bushwick, a poor Puerto Rican neighborhood.
8 is Crown Heights, a poor Black neighborhood.
9 is where Crown Heights becomes East Flatbush. A poor Black neighborhood.
16 is Brownsville, a poor Black neighborhood.
5 is East NY, a poor Black neighborhood with Puerto Ricans to the north in Cypress Hills. Lots of industry and vacant land.
You also forgot the
14. The northern parts are Flatbush. Poor Black neighborhood.
17, More of East Flatbush although it fizzels out to the southwest. Poor Black neighborhood.
13, Coney Island, the west part of that peninsula. Poor Black/Puerto Rican neighborhood.
7, Sunset Park. Poor Puerto Rican neighborhood.
2, those are high concetrations of public housing in Fort Greene.
6, the west tip, Red Hook. Most of that area is industry. The center mass to the west is a large housing project where most of the areas population lives.
In 18 near 5 also isn't the greatest. Canarsie. The areas near 5 are not too good.
In 1, East Williamsburg.
Other scattered major dots are section 8 blocks, housing projects, ect. Small concentrations of poverty most of time. Look at community 15, the only area in those confines that has a large number of people doing time is a huge housing project.
Quote:
Originally Posted by christina0001
How does one find out this information for a particular neighborhood?
That's the problem. This data can be hard to come by in the form of maps. I used Brooklyn becuase it was part of an online prison research project due to high incarceration rates. You just have too look around.
Here is a map for Providence, RI. Does not give you a block by block breakdown but you get the point:
Yeah when you look up things on crime and things like that you always get the same things that really don't help out that much.But this really does seem like a good way to find out where the bad areas are.Like you siad Hustla,most people who are incarcerated from those areas with high incarceration rates,probably hung around that neighborhood for thier whole life.
One of the best ways is to see who hangs out in the nearby gas stations.
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