According to the 14th annual “City Crime Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan America” released on Sunday, St. Louis is the second most dangerous city. Last year St. Louis was ranked number one, but for 2007 Detroit is in the top position.
The report looked at 378 cities with at least 75,000 people based on per-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft. Each crime category was considered separately and weighted based on its seriousness, CQ Press said.
Another Michigan city, Flint, ranked third, followed by Oakland Calif.; Camden, N.J.; Birmingham, Ala.; North Charleston, S.C.; Memphis, Tenn.; Richmond, Calif.; and Cleveland.
The study ranked Mission Viejo, Calif., as the safest U.S. city, followed by Clarkstown, N.Y.; Brick Township, N.J.; Amherst, N.Y.; and Sugarland, Texas.
The study excluded Chicago, Minneapolis, and other Illinois and Minnesota cities because of incomplete data.
The FBI posted a statement on its Web site criticizing such use of its statistics.
“These rough rankings provide no insight into the numerous variables that mold crime in a particular town, city, county, state, or region,” the FBI said. “Consequently, they lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that often create misleading perceptions adversely affecting communities and their residents.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.