I was mucking around this morning with the FBI’s new crime statistics, which reports the prevalence of major categories of crimes for every US city with at least 100,000 people. I learned a few things about the Northwest.
For one thing, Washington’s cities clearly lead the region in violent crime:
The “violent crime” category is comprised of murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.
In 2011, Seattle and Portland each had 20 murders, far more than any other city in Cascadia. Although the two cities have very similar numbers of residents, Seattle had 15 percent more aggravated assaults and 54 percent more robberies. Portland, however, had more than 2.5 times as many forcible rapes as Seattle.
Here’s a look at more of the numbers.
Everett and Spokane reported particularly high rates of property crime, a category that includes burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. It was also interesting to note that Seattle’s formerly sky-high rates of motor vehicle theft have subsided to unremarkable levels.
If you’re interested in this stuff, you can find more detail in the full FBI report here.
Emmett O'Connell
What I find fascinating is the crime rates of some of our smaller cities. For example, Shelton in 2010 and 2011 had a crime rate that in some ways far surpasses the rates of the larger cities.
In 2010 Shelton would’ve topped the list by a long shot with a violent crime rate of ~880 per thousand and a property crime rate of 9,500 per thousand (according to Crime in Washington http://www.waspc.org/index.php?c=Crime%20Statistics)
Erik
I need to start committing more crimes in Bellevue, I mean it’s just down the road for me lol jkjk
Brandon
Would there be a way to also include cities from British Columbia? I’d be very curious in an overall comparison.