Violent Crimes Per Capita FBI UCR Report: Memphis vs. Nashville

[UofMGrad92]

Crime in Nashville is pretty spread out as well. The north side of Nashville, the area around the fair grounds, the East Nashville area, Antioch...all these have crime problems. There are neighborhoods there that are just as rough as any in Memphis. But the overall crime problem (while high), is still considerably less than Memphis.

In the City Data page for Nashville, the overall crime index was 674.7 in 2007, down from the 820 range in the early 2000s. In Memphis, the overall crime index in 2007 was 962.8, a little higher than average over the last 9 years or so. And as a comparison (since many like to compare Memphis to Detroit), Detroit was at 1061.1 in 2007, which is also pretty close to average in the last decade or so. And in metro area statistics, Memphis stays high while Nashville drops off considerably. I'm sure this is a natural outgrowth of having outlying areas (West Memphis and Earle, AR, Tunica, Holly Springs, and Horn Lake, MS, Covington and Galloway, TN) that, while lower crime than Memphis, have higher than the national average crime rates. Also, there is a significant drop off between the highest crime cities (Detroit, Baltimore, St. Louis, New Orleans, Memphis) and the second tier (Nashville, Orlando, Little Rock, etc.). So the issue is part perception and part reality. Nashville is not a really safe city by national standards, but compared to Memphis it is definitely safer.

That being said, I can't explain the reason that some folks think of Nashville in almost Mayberry like terms. I have an acquaintance who lived in Nashville and now lives in Memphis. I was in Nashville a while back (on the North Side), and noted the undesirable sorts hanging out in front of businesses and the obvious presence of armed security guards at the same businessess. I commented to him about it, and he said that that was just a show and the security guards weren't really necessary. I guess the businesses just had some extra cash lying around and decided to spend it on guards. You would be hard pressed to find a Memphian that would give that kind of delusional explanation for armed security.

I'll shut up now, but want to add that perception is often colored by personal experience. There was a poster on this board a while back who moved to Hot Springs, AR and posted about how crime free and wonderful it is there. I pointed out that Hot Springs is nice, but the crime rate is pretty high there as well. He disagreed, but based it mainly on the fact that he hadn't been the vicitim of crime there. There are plenty of areas in and around Memphis where you can have that same experience (a crime victim free life), but it is less likely to be the case here than Nashville or most other cities in the U.S.