How to Find the Crime Rate of a City
Everyone wants to be safe, even city dwellers. Find the crime rate of a city to get a sense of how safe you might be, whether in your current home, on your next trip, or with a potential move to a big city. When determining crime rates, factor in how the municipality compiles crime statistics and which crimes go largely unreported. Crime rates are compiled in different ways in different places. Use multiple data sources to get a comprehensive view of crime rates in a particular city. Strategically protect yourself and your loved ones by doing research.
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Instructions
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How to Find the Crime Rate of a City
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Read the news. Newspapers, magazines and established online publications are credible sources of information about crime. Journalistic accounts provide the detailed real-life effects of crime.
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Research the local police department headquarters' crime statistics. Every city's local police department headquarters has aggregated data about crime. Some cities, like New York City, use computer software to compile crime statistics. CompStat--the crime statistic software for New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and other cities around the country--collects, analyzes and maps crime data.
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Contact local victim-oriented organizations. Non-profit organizations that cater to crime victims have information that is not necessarily submitted in official crime statistics. The Office for Victims of Crime links to victim-serving organizations across the country. Certain types of crime are notoriously under-reported. According to the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network, 60 percent of rapes and sexual assaults are unreported.
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Observe your surroundings. Statistics and other aggregated data are quantitative, but still incomplete. Be aware of the actions and dispositions of people around you. Check out the amount of graffiti and litter in the area, the upkeep and condition of the local businesses, and the extent of the security systems on the homes and apartments.
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Contact neighborhood organizations. Much like victim-oriented organizations, hyperlocal neighborhood organizations have information that may not be available in the city's crime statistics. A code of the streets known as "no snitching" encourages people not to report crimes committed by their neighbors. Young people in cities across the country have started a "start snitching" campaign to combat rampant crime in urban areas.
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Read the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports. These reports rely on municipalities to self-report crime. The federal government provides law enforcement agencies with guidelines on how to classify criminal offenses. Approximately 17,000 agencies contribute to the Federal Bureau of Investigation data.
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Tips & Warnings
Read the news sources every day to stay abreast of city crimes.
Keep a list of crimes you find in the media.
Read the fine print when you read aggregated crime statistics.
