Baltimore declared nation’s ‘Most Dangerous City’

A new statistical report produced and released on February 19 by USA Today declares Baltimore, Maryland, as the nation’s “Most Dangerous City.” The report is based on preliminary numbers provided by the FBI for the year 2017. The report is also based on murders per capita and shows Baltimore coming out on top of the list of the nation’s 50 most dangerous cities, beating out Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New York City.

ABC 2 News in Baltimore explains that the crime data analyzed to declare Baltimore as being the most dangerous city is not based on the total number of murders in these violent cities, but the number of murders relative to the total number of city residents.

So when you look at Chicago, they had 650 murders last year, nearly doubled what Baltimore had which was 342. But compared to Chicago’s population, their murder rate came out to 24 murders for every 100,000 people.

In Baltimore, the homicide rate is 56 murders per 100,000. ~ per ABC 2 News

But at 342 murders, Baltimore still had a larger number of total murders in 2017 than Philadelphia, 317; Los Angeles, 290; and New York City, 286.

The Baltimore Sun reports that Baltimore is actually showing a decline in homicide numbers in 2018. As of February 19, Baltimore has recorded 32 murders versus 47 murders on the same date in 2017. Baltimore began the month of February this year by going almost two full weeks without a murder within the city limits. “The 12-day murder-free streak, which began with a ceasefire weekend, was a milestone that hadn’t been seen in years,” according to CBS Baltimore.

You can see the complete list of Homicides during 2017 in the 50 largest cities on infogram.com. And for more on the story, see the video accompanying this article.