You can go anywhere online and find lists of the 10 safest places in each state, but here at THD we bring you the other side.So grab your 40 and BulletProof ,because in this post, we’re going to take a virtual tour of Virginia’s 10 most dangerous places.
Here they are, starting with the most dangerous place, Richmond:
1. City of Richmond
2. City of Norfolk
3. City of Portsmouth
4. City of Roanoke
5. City of Petersburg
6. City of Fredericksburg
7. City of Hopewell
8. City of Bristol
9. City of Danville
10. City of Newport News
We’ll take a closer look at each of these 10 cities in the upcoming paragraphs, but first, here’s how we came up with this list in the first place.
Our Methodology
We began this one with a visit to the U.S. Census where we found all of the most populous places in Virginia of over 10,000 people. We then used the 2012 FBI Uniform Crime Report to look at each according to the following criteria:
MurderRapeRobberyAssaultBurglaryTheftVehicle theftWe then divided these crimes into four different categories:
- Murders
- Violent crimes
- Property crimes
- Total crimes
Once we eliminated any places that did not report their crime data to the bureau, we were left with 37 places to look at. We calculated each place’s number of crimes per person (or per capita) in order to fairly compare places of all population sizes.
Next, we weighted murders, violent crimes, and property crimes so that they each comprised 30 percent of the overall score, whereas the total number of crimes comprised 10 percent. Finally, we averaged each place’s rankings into one overall Big Deal Score, where the lowest score went to our most dangerous place.
To see the rankings of all 37 places in our analysis, feel free to head to the bottom of the post. Otherwise, we’ll take a closer look at the 10 most dangerous places in the state starting with Richmond.
Please Note: This ranking is not a critique of police practices or effectiveness. It simply an analysis of where crimes occurred.1. Richmond
Source: Flickr user Virginia Department of Transportation
The capital city may be exciting, but according to these numbers, it can also be pretty dangerous. For instance, Richmond had the highest number of murders per person in 2012 out of anywhere else in the state. Not only that, but its number of violent crimes in general (including murders, rapes, assaults, and robberies) was the highest per person as well.
The slightly brighter side was that Richmond’s number of property crimes per person was slightly lower than others in our top 10 (it ranked seventh in this category). While this means that the total number of crimes per person here was lower than it could have been, a higher percentage of those crimes were violent, and even more alarming, a higher percentage were murders, than anywhere else.
2. Norfolk
Source: Flickr user michchap
Norfolk may not have quite the high number of violent crimes or murders that our most dangerous city, Richmond, did (nowhere else did), and yet overall, residents here were more likely to be the victim of a crime—they had just a 1 in 19 chance!
This is because of Norfolk’s higher number of property crimes per person—the fourth most in the state. Along with the third most murders and the third most violent crimes person, all this combined for a high number of total crimes and a higher likelihood of being involved in one of those crimes. Of course, residents in our next city were even more likely to fall victim.
3. Portsmouth
Source: Flickr user dfirecop
Portsmouth may be directly opposite from Norfolk, but where crime was concerned, these two were pretty close. The only difference is, where Norfolk ranked higher for its number of violent crimes, Portsmouth was more dangerous in its number of property crimes, ranking second in this category.
Most of the property crimes here were thefts and burglaries, but for every 100,000 residents, 218 were vehicle thefts (so remember to lock your cars, people!)
All in all, with such a high number of property crimes, Portsmouth residents were some of the most likely in the state to be the victim of a crime—a 1 in 18 chance.
4. Roanoke
Source: Flickr user Levi
If you’re thinking about trading in Portsmouth for Roanoke, since it’s a bit further down the list, well, just be aware that your chance of being the victim of a crime is just as high—1 in 18. Of course the reasons behind this are a bit different.
In Roanoke, the number of violent crimes per person was the second highest in the state, however, the number of murders was a bit less (still, the seventh highest in the state, not really much to brag about.)
Roanoke also had a very high number of property crimes per person—the third highest in the state.
5. Petersburg
Source: Flickr user Taber Andrew Bain
Here’s the good news about Petersburg: compared to some of the other places we looked at, it had a relatively low number of property crimes, and therefore overall crimes per person.
Here’s the bad news: it had the fourth highest number of violent crimes and the second highest number of murders per person. The majority of its violent crimes were assaults, but still, for every 100,000 residents, there were 15 murders in 2012. Considering the fact that nearly half of the places we looked at had none, well, 15 is pretty high.
6. Fredericksburg
Source: Flickr user The National Guard
This city may be charming, but don’t let those historic buildings and boutiques fool you—it was also one of the more violent places in the state. Yep, adorable Fredericksburg ranked No. 8 in the category of violent crimes, and was the ninth highest for its number of murders per person.
It was also the ninth highest for its number of property crimes and overall crimes, giving residents a 1 in 23 chance of being the victim of a crime in 2012.
7. Hopewell
Source: Wikimedia user Edbrown05
Unfortunately this city’s rather hopeful-sounding name doesn’t seem to have carried over to its safety. In 2012, Hopewell had the seventh highest number of murders per person out of anywhere in Virginia.
It also had a pretty high number of both property and violent crimes as a whole, ranking 10th in each category. Of those property crimes, a vast majority were thefts, and of the violent crimes, most were assaults.
8. Bristol
Source: Flickr user Big Ed's Photos
Coincidence that Bristol happens to rhyme with… pistol? Yes, of course it is. But what isn’t a coincidence is the fact that in 2012, Bristol had the fourth highest number of murders per person in the state, and it was also one of the most dangerous places in the state.
To put this into perspective for you, for every person in Bristol there were .00011 murders. As small as this sounds, considering the fact that in 16 of the 37 places we looked at there were no murders, .00011 is quite a lot.
9. Danville
Source: Flickr user Virginia Guard Public Affairs
In 2012, Danville had the fifth most property crimes per person, which caused the total number of crimes per person to rise as well. Most of these property crimes were thefts, but still, for every 100,000 people there were 974 burglaries. Another way to think of this is, for every one person, there were .00974 burglaries. Or to keep it simple, just know that this is a lot.
Of course property crimes are not the worst thing in the world, but Danville didn’t get off scot-free when it came to violence either. This place had the 11th highest number of murders and the 14th highest number of violent crimes per person in the state.
10. Newport News
Source: Flickr user Cliff
The best thing that can be said about the crime numbers in Newport News is that, at least they were the lowest of our top 10 most dangerous. The worst thing that can be said, though, is that this city had the fourth highest number of murders per person in the state.
In fact, residents might want to be wary of violent crime in general, as it ranked ninth in this category overall. Of course most of these crimes were assaults, but 149 per every 100,000 people were robberies and 28 were rapes.
