Murder Capitals Of America: 2 Pennsylvania Cities On List

This is not a list you really want to be on, but two Pennsylvania cities are. And not to scare you, but you might want to know why.

Two Pennsylvania cities have been listed as "Murder Capitals of America" for 2018. In fact, one came in second in the entire country and is more dangerous than Detroit or Baltimore.

The list was prepared by NeighborhoodScout, a web-based platform from Location, Inc., and includes 30 cities in America with the highest number of murders per 1,000 residents.

In Pennsylvania, the two cities that were given the not-so-favorable designation include Chester (Delaware County) and Harrisburg, the state capital. Chester came in second, making it the nation's worst "murder capital" behind only East St. Louis, Ill.

NeighborhoodScout compiled its list, which includes cities with a population of 25,000 or more, using crime data from the FBI on number of murders. The data was then compared to the population of each city provided by the US Census Bureau.

In Chester, a city with about 34,000 people located south of Philadelphia, there were 23 murders in 2016 (the latest full year for which FBI data is available). That's a murder rate of 0.68 per 1,000 residents.

Harrisburg, a city of about 49,000 residents, saw 13 murders in 2016 for a murder rate of 0.27 per 1,000.

The top 10 Murder Capitals of America, according to NeighborhoodScout, include:

1. East St. Louis, IL
2. Chester, PA
3. Camden, NJ
4. St. Louis, MO
5. Gary, IN
6. West Memphis, AR
7. Baltimore, MD
8. Flint, MI
9. Detroit, MI
10. New Orleans, LA

Click here to see the full list of NeighborhoodScout's Murder Capitals of America.

Image via Patch