Camden tops list with highest crime rate
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
By: Elizabeth Fiedler
efiedler@whyy.org
Camden, New Jersey is again the nation's most dangerous city according to rating released today. Last year's survey by CQ Press put Camden as the 2nd most dangerous city behind New Orleans.
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Many criminologists don't think much of lists like this one.
MacDonald: Most of these kinds of most dangerous city rankings are simple models and they're used largely just to illicit some fear.
That's University of Pennsylvania criminologist John MacDonald.
MacDonald: In most cases what drives the crime rate in any given city is a very small segment of neighborhoods. You could live in a city that has a really high crime rate but if you live in the part of the city that has really low crime, you're risk of being a victim of crime is no greater than if you lived in a city with a very low crime ranking.
MacDonald says being labeled "the worst" could hurt ailing cities even more – by lowering property values and discouraging economic development.