When talking about crime and homicides, big cities like Los Angeles, Chicago or New York always stand out. However, the increase in crime is also skyrocketing in smaller cities. It is what Fox News has described as 'emerging capitals of crime'.
These are the cities with the highest murder and homicide rates per capita. They are as follows: New Orleans, Baltimore, Birmingham, Birmingham, St. Louis, Milwaukee and Cleveland. Cities with a homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants higher than that of large capitals.
New Orleans almost certainly had the nation's highest murder rate per 100k of any big city in the first half of the year. The below table includes cities 200k+ with available data through late June. pic.twitter.com/ZC268J0o2p
- Jeff Asher (@Crimealytics) July 1, 2022
Jeff Asher, co-founder of AH Datalytics explains that, in the first six months of the year, these are the 31 cities with a population of more than 200,000 inhabitants that lead this ranking. Leading the table is New Orleans, which has a per capita homicide rate of 36.8. The city recorded 145 murders as of June 30. If this trend continues, it would close 2022 with nearly 300, a figure that would put the city's homicide rate at 74.12 per 100,000 inhabitants by the end of the year. To get an idea of the seriousness of the figure, this rate would eclipse the 18.26 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants of Chicago, a city that is breaking its own crime records.
This is not the only case. In Baltimore, for example, 174 homicides have been recorded in half a year. Being larger than New Orleans, the rate is slightly lower than the Big Easy city (29.1 per 100,000 population). Birmingham has a rate of 28, St. Louis 27.8, Milwaukee 19 and Cleveland 16.9.
What is behind these homicide and crime rates?
More than a dozen cities reported record homicide numbers in 2021, continuing a trend of violence that began in 2020. This year, according to a Fox analysis, six major cities are on track to surpass the historic violent crime records of 2021. In the first half of 2022, New York and Washington D.C. lead in the increase of these crimes. Along with the aforementioned Baltimore, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Atlanta are poised to surpass their 2021 crime records. To exemplify, New York City alone has experienced a 25.8% increase in violent crime in the first half of the year.
Homicides, rapes, assaults and robberies have been growing steadily since 2020. Especially homicides, which progressed 30% from 2019 to 2020 and another 5% between 2020 and 2021. And all in the midst of a wave of contempt for authority in the wake of BLM attacks and a progressive current bent on defunding the police.
The six cities at the top of Asher' s list of homicides are led by a Democratic mayor.
