Upper West Side vs Bed Stuy - crime stats (neighborhood, school)

[nycbrownstone]

ok, here is my question - i just dont get it:

if you compare the crime stats of the upper west side with bed stuy, the uws seems to be far worse (source: nytimes)

upper west side:

total crime risk: 134
personal crime risk: 226
murder risk: 121

bed stuy:

total crime risk: 107
personal crime risk: 174
murder risk: 123

so seriously whats the deal with the stats (100 is national average)

so why is it that the upper west side has such a good reputation & bed stuy a quite bad one?

[Viralmd]

The key to analyzing and statistical data is to see 1) what data were used for the sources of the results and 2) how those data were analyzed. Without that information NO statistical data are useful.

Your question isn't answerable without those two critical pieces of information.

[vitalove]

The UWS may have more people both living and working there than Bed Stuy. So if there are more people in the neighborhood daily (from living, working, shopping, school etc.) there may be a bigger propensity for crime. This could be that criminals from other areas come to the UWS to target people.

Whereas Bed Stuy would have a smaller population and not as much traffic as the UWS. Most people do not come to the area to commit crime and target the neighborhood. Unfortunately, most of their criminals probably actually live there and target their fellow law abiding neighbors.