2 CT Cities Among 100 Most Dangerous In Country, Study Says

Two Connecticut cities are among the top 100 most dangerous cities in the country with 25,000 or more people, according to a recent study by Neighborhood Scout, a website that reports on neighborhood information and real estate data.

According to the website, Neighborhood Scout complied the list based on the number of violent crimes per 1,000 residents, such as murder, rape, armed robbery and aggravated assault. The research took in to account the number of violent crimes reported to the FBI to have occurred in each city and each city's population.

The website also used the most up-to-date data available, classified by the FBI as "final, non-preliminary," as to avoid using information that could have errors in it or may need to be updated.

Both Hartford and New Haven landed a spot on the list, with New Haven placing low on the list at number 92. According to Neighborhood Scout, New Haven has a crime rate of 54 per 1,000 residents, one of the highest in America.

Additionally, NeighborhoodScout found a lot of the crimes that take place in the city are property crimes, such as burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft and arson. In New Haven, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 22, a rate of 45 per one thousand population. The city also has a high rate of motor vehicle thefts.

Hartford placed higher on the list at number 57. According to Neighborhood Scout, Hartford has a crime rate of 53 per 1,000 residents, also one of the highest in America.

In Hartford, your chance of becoming a victim to a violent crime is one in 91 and your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 24. A high number of motor vehicle thefts were also reported in Hartford, where a resident's chance of getting their car stolen is one in 159.

The full list can be viewed at Neighborhood Scout, where additional information can be accessed about each city by clicking on its name.

Dr. Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve, a criminology expert and professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, tells Patch that readers shouldn’t put too much stock into “dangerous city” rankings.

“We kind of throw around these rankings and it makes it sound like everyone is equally vulnerable to violence, when really, in most cities, especially a city like Chicago for instance, violence is mostly concentrated in areas that are most socially neglected. Areas with the highest rates of poverty. Failing schools.”

Major American cities with high levels of segregation, poverty and inequality will often see high rates of violence, she says. But crime statistics and rankings don’t paint an accurate picture of where that violence actually happens. Violence is concentrated within communities, and individual blocks within neighborhoods see vastly different levels of violence than others, she says.

“Literally, one side of the street will have less crime in the same neighborhood than the other side of the street,” she says.

Criminologists are looking into what’s behind such violence gaps and have found that it could be rooted in politics. Some streets receive social programs and rehabilitative services — such as violence prevention and job screening — but individuals on the opposite side of the street might be neglected.

“The rankings, while great for click-thrus, don’t really tell us the complex nature of how violence is impacted in some ways by social conditions, poverty, and other types of complex variables,” she says. “It’s never equally distributed throughout a city.”

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