New Mexico Ranks #1 in Crime
North Dakota Once Again is Safest
LAWRENCE, KS — Not all is enchanting in the Land of Enchantment. New Mexico today was named the nation’s Most Dangerous State by Morgan Quitno Press, a Lawrence, Kansas-based independent research and publishing company, which released its annual findings. At the safer end of the rankings scale, North Dakota has a lock on the title of America’s Safest State, winning the honor for the fourth consecutive year. "Without a doubt, New Mexico struggles with crime," said Scott Morgan, President of Morgan Quitno Press. "It has the nation’s highest violent crime rate, highest aggravated assault rate and highest burglary rate. In contrast, North Dakota has the lowest violent crime rate, lowest murder rate and the lowest aggravated assault rate."
METHODOLOGY: The Most Dangerous State 2000 rankings are determined by a four step process. First, rates for six crime categories - murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft - are plugged into a formula that measures how a state compares to the national average for a given crime category.
Second, the outcome of this equation is then multiplied by a weight assigned to each crime category. For this year's award, we again gave each crime category equal weight. Thus state comparisons are based purely on crime rates and how these rates stack up to the national average for a given crime category.
Third, the weighted numbers are added together to achieve state's score ("SUM.") In the fourth and final step, these composite scores are ranked from highest to lowest to determine which states are the most dangerous and safest. Thus the farther below the national average a state's crime rate is, the lower (and safer) it ranks. The farther above the national average, the higher (and more dangerous) a state ranks in the final list.
1 New Mexico
2 Florida
3 Nevada
4 Louisiana
5 Maryland
6 South Carolina
7 Arizona
8 Tennessee
9 Illinois
10 Michigan
11 Delaware
12 California
13 Alaska
14 Georgia
15 North Carolina
16 Mississippi
17 Texas
18 Oklahoma
19 Washington
20 Missouri
21 Alabama
22 Arkansas
23 New York
24 Oregon
25 Indiana
26 Colorado
27 Kansas
28 Ohio
29 Massachusetts
30 New Jersey
31 Pennsylvania
32 Utah
33 Minnesota
34 Connecticut
35 Hawaii
36 Virginia
37 Nebraska
38 Rhode Island
39 Kentucky
40 Idaho
41 Wisconsin
42 Iowa
43 Wyoming
44 West Virginia
45 Montana
46 Vermont
47 South Dakota
48 Maine
49 New Hampshire
50 North Dakota
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It's amazing what you'll stumble across surfing the web when looking for something else. The above list is from the Morgan Quitno Press web site. In case you're wondering Kernel lives in #41 (having recently moved from #42)...... and I still lock my doors every night.
[Edited by Kernel on 05-09-2001 at 12:44 AM]
North Dakota Once Again is Safest
LAWRENCE, KS — Not all is enchanting in the Land of Enchantment. New Mexico today was named the nation’s Most Dangerous State by Morgan Quitno Press, a Lawrence, Kansas-based independent research and publishing company, which released its annual findings. At the safer end of the rankings scale, North Dakota has a lock on the title of America’s Safest State, winning the honor for the fourth consecutive year. "Without a doubt, New Mexico struggles with crime," said Scott Morgan, President of Morgan Quitno Press. "It has the nation’s highest violent crime rate, highest aggravated assault rate and highest burglary rate. In contrast, North Dakota has the lowest violent crime rate, lowest murder rate and the lowest aggravated assault rate."
METHODOLOGY: The Most Dangerous State 2000 rankings are determined by a four step process. First, rates for six crime categories - murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft - are plugged into a formula that measures how a state compares to the national average for a given crime category.
Second, the outcome of this equation is then multiplied by a weight assigned to each crime category. For this year's award, we again gave each crime category equal weight. Thus state comparisons are based purely on crime rates and how these rates stack up to the national average for a given crime category.
Third, the weighted numbers are added together to achieve state's score ("SUM.") In the fourth and final step, these composite scores are ranked from highest to lowest to determine which states are the most dangerous and safest. Thus the farther below the national average a state's crime rate is, the lower (and safer) it ranks. The farther above the national average, the higher (and more dangerous) a state ranks in the final list.
1 New Mexico
2 Florida
3 Nevada
4 Louisiana
5 Maryland
6 South Carolina
7 Arizona
8 Tennessee
9 Illinois
10 Michigan
11 Delaware
12 California
13 Alaska
14 Georgia
15 North Carolina
16 Mississippi
17 Texas
18 Oklahoma
19 Washington
20 Missouri
21 Alabama
22 Arkansas
23 New York
24 Oregon
25 Indiana
26 Colorado
27 Kansas
28 Ohio
29 Massachusetts
30 New Jersey
31 Pennsylvania
32 Utah
33 Minnesota
34 Connecticut
35 Hawaii
36 Virginia
37 Nebraska
38 Rhode Island
39 Kentucky
40 Idaho
41 Wisconsin
42 Iowa
43 Wyoming
44 West Virginia
45 Montana
46 Vermont
47 South Dakota
48 Maine
49 New Hampshire
50 North Dakota
=====================================
It's amazing what you'll stumble across surfing the web when looking for something else. The above list is from the Morgan Quitno Press web site. In case you're wondering Kernel lives in #41 (having recently moved from #42)...... and I still lock my doors every night.
[Edited by Kernel on 05-09-2001 at 12:44 AM]
