According to a recent article from Forbes, Mobile and Birmingham were named the second and third most unsafe cities in the United States.
Forbes listed MoneyGeek, a personal finance technology company that has issued a list of America's most dangerous cities for three years, as its source for the data.
Because of its analytical methodology, MoneyGeek purports to use FBI statistics of violent and property crimes to analyze the total crime costs in various cities. Moneygeek assigned rankings based on the total cost of crime per capita in cities with a population over 100,000.
According to the data, one murder costs $9 million, while larceny is estimated to be around $3,500, making murder 2,571 more costly for any given city.
"The cost of crime per capita is not only a data point about how much crime happens in a given population, but it also demonstrates the severity of the crimes happening," said Doug Milnes, MoneyGeek's chief of data analytics. "For example, murders and high-level assaults have higher costs than larceny or simple theft. By aggregating each crime into an easily readable stat based on population, we can make broad comparisons about which are the most dangerous cities in the country."
St. Louis, Missouri, took first place, with Mobile and Birmingham trailing behind. According to Milnes, while the two may have lower per-capita murder rates than St. Louis, the high rate of low-cost property crime give both some of the highest in the nation.
"Mobile has been consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in the country," Milnes continued. "The property crime rate and violent crime rate there is the highest in the country, only ranking below St. Louis for most dangerous (due to Mobile having less high-cost crimes like murder). Mobile and Birmingham both have higher than average crime rates and relatively lower standards of living."
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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