The ‘Most Violent State’ Crown Is Held By…Tennessee
What do you think is the state with the highest violent crime rate? You might be surprised to learn it’s Tennessee. Despite the reputations of states like New York, California and Florida when it comes to violence, Tennessee the most violent state, followed by Nevada and Alaska. Those are in the 2nd and 3rd spots, respectively.
The violent crime statistic comes from the FBI compilation of statistics for rape, robbery, murder and aggravated assault.
Why is Tennessee the most violent state? Well, according to 24 Wall St., who originally reported on the list of most dangerous states,
The state was among the top 10 in the country for murders and robberies and was first for aggravated assaults, with an estimated 479.6 for every 100,000 residents. Tennessee’s 41,550 violent crimes in 2012 were up 6.8% from 2011 but down 10% from 2007, when there were 46,380 violent crimes. There were 388 murders in the state in 2012, up for a second straight year. To be fair, Tennessee’s violent streak is concentrated in some of the major metropolitan areas. Memphis’s violent crime rate was the nation’s fifth worst, while Nashville’s was the 18th worst. Like many states with high violent crime, poverty in Tennessee is acute, and high school and college graduation rates are lower than most of the country.
Who else is on the most violent state list?
The rest of those on the most violent state list are NV, AK, NM, SC, DE, LA, FL, MD and OK.
Most of the top ten are the gun-friendly states we often have occasion to write about. Of course, the gun-rights fanatics will point out the exceptions and claim there's absolutely no connection to gun proliferation, but we know better.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
"To be fair, Tennessee’s violent streak is concentrated in some of the major metropolitan areas."
ReplyDeleteMemphis has been improving over the past 15 years or so, but it had sunk to a major hellhole before that. Interesting that the violent crime is concentrated in the urban areas where gun ownership is lowest and not in the rural areas where damn near everybody has a gun.
The criminals are smart enough to figure out that it's easier to rob people in poor parts of the cities where few people have guns rather than risking it in other places where the much more rare stories of home invasions usually end with a 12 gauge. The cities problems are also being magnified by the growth of gangs that are managing both the local drug trade and Tennessee's 500+ mile section of the I-40 and I-81 corridors for drug trafficking to the coast and to the Northeast.
Blah, blah, blah. You should be proud of you state. The most violent.
DeleteWhere do you live, by the way? Are you in a rural trailer park somewhere?
Ah, a fine bunch of ad hominems. Guess that's all you can do when the factors explaining these numbers don't fit your framework.
DeleteYou're the one who brought up the difference between rural Tennessee and the dangerous cities.
DeleteYes, I did. What does my abode have to do with that argument? If I lived in a trailer would that somehow discredit what I'm saying? Is it somehow more or less relevant if I live in a house in the country? Or in a flat in town?
DeleteYou're the one who brought it up. Why do you refuse to answer?
DeleteI'm not refusing to answer; I'm merely asking what the relevance is, but how's this: I'll answer your question, you answer mine.
DeleteI currently live in a flat in a small city--lived in a couple in Knoxville for 7 years of school (less the 6 months I lived in one in Edinburgh). I often weekend at my folks' home in the country where I help with the poultry and horticulture.
So, again, what is the relevance of that to what I said before? And do you dispute what I said?
So, your insistence was just a red herring, eh, and you have no intention of answering my questions?
DeleteA shame they didn't throw in a little context. Actually, the grand champion is the District of Columbia coming in at 1243 per 100k.
ReplyDeleteCalifornia with its restrictive gun laws at 423 per 100k and Texas with less restrictive laws had 408 per 100k. And we were recently talking about violent Vermont trailing behind many with a paltry 142 per 100k
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/tables/5tabledatadecpdf
Does this have something to do with Tennessee? They're still numero uno, right?
DeleteTo hell with common sense!
ReplyDelete"In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over one mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old Oolitic Silurian Period, just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi River was upwards of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing-rod. And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long, and Cairo and New Orleans will have joined their streets together, and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact." Mark Twain
orlin sellers
How about we look at a complete 50 state correlation of violent crime rates vs. gun laws? I did that, you know. And it comes out worse for you than murder rates.
ReplyDeleteWhy is Tennessee the most violent state? - Memphis. That is why TN is the most violent state. I know because I live here.
ReplyDeleteIt's the most violent State because of lying fuck head hillbillies like Greg who openly state they will break the law and could care less about people dying because of their idiocy.
DeleteMikeb, you keep leaving out the fact that some forty of the fifty states are gun friendly. You also ignore the fact that Maryland and Delaware are not particularly friendly to guns, but they show up in the top ten of violent crimes.
ReplyDeleteYour argument, as always, only works if we don't look under the hood.
No surprise, that's where hillbillies come from.
ReplyDeleteMost high crime rates (in any State) are in the cities.
But hillbilly would want us to think that's because there aren't enough guns in the cities. Laughable!
I am not truly prepared to back up this statement with facts, but just in the rough, I think that the level of violence is tied to poverty and quality of life. That's one reason that Texas is not topping the list. Texas has a strong economy, a progressive energy policy and a decent standard of living.
ReplyDeleteOf course it's difficult to generalize. There are many more factors than simply median or average household incomes. But the trends are there for all to see. The poorest Southern states seem to have the highest rates of violent crime and incarceration. I have been very ashamed of California's rate of incarceration due to the powerful prison guard's union and their cozy relation with state democrats. But by no means do we lead the nation in this respect.
Misery, poverty and unemployment breed crime and violence. Whether or not a state is gun-friendly or restrictive probably doesn't make a huge difference statistically. Good sense gun control can very likely prevent individual tragedies one by one. But only building up the poorest segments of our nation can lead to a greater quality of life for all.
Instead of doing what you speculate might work, how about we do the thing you discussed that we know would work, namely building up the poor? Gun control only works to violate the rights of good people, while promoting education and job opportunities benefits the whole of the society.
DeleteGood call Greg!
DeleteGreg, the argument works pretty well, actually. As you pointed out, 2 of the top ten are gun control states. That means 8 are gun friendly. The connection is obvious.
ReplyDeleteAgain, you ignore the fact the forty of the fifty states are gun friendly. Lots of those states have low rates of violence. The connection that you claim is non-existent.
DeleteGreg is correct Mike,
DeleteThere are several states that belie the contention that lax gun laws equal more gun violence. I mentioned Vermont before, also Idaho, my on home state of Minnesota, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana to name some.
ss, only cherry-picked stats can back up what you said. The post above is pretty damning to your position. Accept it.
DeleteMikeb, you keep insisting that we accept lies and bad reasoning. Why is that, exactly?
DeleteYeah, ss! How dare you cherry pick! Only Mike and the Gun Controllers get to do that!
Delete