Homicide in America: A State-by-State Analysis (crime rates, live, statistics)
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Homicide has become a grim reality of life in the United States. According to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 44 percent of Americans say that they know someone who has been assaulted, and another 23 percent report that a person has threatened or intimidated them or a family member. A 2019 Gallup poll found that 6 in 10 Americans fear that crime will occur in their community. And in a 2018 news poll, 53 percent of young people between the ages of 13 and 17 identified violence as a “major worry”—outranking all other concerns listed in the poll.
More than 18,700 people were victims of homicide in the United States in 2018, meaning that a person is murdered in this country every 30 minutes. But the violence crisis in the United States is not monolithic; rates of homicide vary widely from state to state, as does the character of that homicide. Some states report relatively low rates of murders, while other states have the exact opposite experience. Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Missouri, and New Mexico rank in the top five for highest rates of homicide, with rates that are higher than 10 murders per every 100,000 people. In contrast, Maine, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Nebraska are at the other end of the spectrum, with rates lower than two homicides per every 100,000 people.
State-by-state rankings of homicide death rates per 100,000 people in the United States, 2018
Mississippi 13.4
Louisiana 13.3
Alabama 12.2
Missouri 11.4
New Mexico 10.8
South Carolina 10.2
Maryland 9.3
Tennessee 9.2
Arkansas 9.1
Illinois 8.0
Georgia 7.7
Nevada 7.7
Alaska 7.5
Indiana 7.4
Oklahoma 7.0
Delaware 6.8
Ohio 6.8
Florida 6.6
Michigan 6.5
North Carolina 6.4
Pennsylvania 6.4
Arizona 6.1
Kentucky 6.1
Kansas 5.9
West Virginia 5.8
Texas 5.4
Virginia 5.1
California 4.8
Colorado 4.7
Montana 4.2
Wyoming 4 1
South Dakota 3.9
Wisconsin 3.9
New Jersey 3.7
Washington 3.7
New York 3.2
Hawaii 3.1
Connecticut 2.8
Iowa 2.7
North Dakota 2.5
Oregon 2.5
Idaho 2.3
Massachusetts 2.3
Minnesota 2.3
Utah 2.2
Nebraska 1.9
New Hampshire 1.8
Vermont 0.0
Rhode Island 0.0
Maine 0.0
Despite ongoing concerns over crime, the country as a whole is safer than you might realize. In fact, with a homicide rate of 5.0 for every 100,000 people in 2018, the U.S. is statistically the safest it’s been since the 1960's. Compare that to the all time high 10.2 homicide rate of 1980.
State-by-state rankings of homicide death rates per 100,000 people in the United States, 1980
Nevada 20.0
Texas 16.9
Louisiana 15.7
California 14.5
Florida 14.5
Mississippi 14.5
Georgia 13.8
Alabama 13.2
New Mexico 13.1
New York 12.7
South Carolina 11.4
Missouri 11.1
Tennessee 10.8
Illinois 10.6
North Carolina 10.6
Arizona 10.3
Michigan 10.2
Oklahoma 10.0
Maryland 9.5
Arkansas 9.2
Alaska 8.9
Indiana 8.9
Kentucky 8.8
Hawaii 8.7
Virginia 8.6
Ohio 8.1
West Virginia 7.1
Colorado 6.9
Delaware 6.9
Kansas 6.9
New Jersey 6.9
Pennsylvania 6.8
Wyoming 6.2
Washington 5.5
Oregon 5.1
Connecticut 4.7
Nebraska 4.4
Rhode Island 4.4
Massachusetts 4.1
Montana 4.0
Utah 3.8
Idaho 3.1
Wisconsin 2.9
Maine 2.8
Minnesota 2.6
New Hampshire 2.5
Iowa 2.2
Vermont 2.2
North Dakota 1.2
South Dakota 0.7
I'm confused in regards to Mississippi's homicide death rate (13.4 per 100k) being more than 2X higher than it's murder rate (5.7 per 100k) in 2018.
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