Rural southern, western states among those with nation's highest violent crime rates: FBI

Data: FBI; Map: Axios VisualsRural states in the American South and West had some of the nation's highest violent crime and homicide rates in 2024, driven by violence in small communities, according to an Axios analysis of FBI data. Why it matters: A state-by-state comparison paints a complex picture of U.S. crime trends as President Trump threatens to send the National Guard to Democrat-controlled cities in blue states over concerns about violent crime.The big picture: The president has already dispatched the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and is threatening to send troops to Chicago, Oakland, Calif., and Baltimore.Now Trump is facing questions about whether he'll send troops to communities in red states — many of them largely rural — where crime rates are actually higher than the areas he's targeted."Sure, but there aren't that many of them," Trump said last week.By the numbers: The southern states of Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas and South Carolina were among the national leaders in both violent crime and homicide rates last year, an Axios review of FBI data found. All had violent crime and homicide rates well above the national average.Alaska, the country's most rural state, led the nation with the highest violent crime rate of 1,194.3 per 100,000 residents. That's more than three times the national average of 359.1.New Mexico, another rural state, was second with a violent crime rate of 757.7 per 100,000 residents, more than two times the national average.Big states such as California and New York, both targets of Trump, ranked high in total violent crime numbers because of their large populations, but their per-capita rates were similar to those of Arkansas and Tennessee, the Axios review found.Zoom out: Alaska and New Mexico also led the nation in homicide rates with 11.3 homicides per 100,000 residents each, more than twice the nation's homicide rate of 5 per 100,000 residents.Pennsylvania was third nationally with a homicide rate of 10.1, followed by Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee.Illinois, home to Chicago, which Trump has called a "killing field," had a homicide rate of 6 per 100,000 residents, ranked 20th in the nation. Zoom in: Big-city crime often receives the most attention in political discourse, but an Axios analysis of rural states found that violence in small towns is driving some of the nation's highest crime rates. For example, Fairbanks, Ala., population roughly 32,000, had a violent crime rate of nearly 700 per 100,000 residents, about twice the national average.McKeesport, Pa., a city of 18,000 outside Pittsburgh, had a violent crime rate of 1,693.7 and a homicide rate of a whopping 32.5 per 100,000 people. It consistently ranks among the most dangerous cities in the country, a situation officials have largely atributed to a long-term decline in its industrial economy. Dyersburg, Tenn., a community of 16,000, has a violent crime rate of 1,256.5 and a homicide rate of 18.8.What they're saying: "If Washington, D.C., (were) a state, it would have the highest homicide rate of any state in the nation," the White House said in a statement on Aug. 11 before dispatching the National Guard. D.C.'s homicide rate was 25.9 per 100,000 residents in 2024.Yes, but: D.C. isn't a state, it's a city. Among the cities with the highest homicide rates in the U.S., Washington is ranked 11th, according to an Axios review of cities with 100,000 people or more with high homicide rates.Jackson, Miss., population about 141,500, had the nation's highest homicide rate last year — nearly 78 per 100,000 residents. That's more than 15 times the national average. There has been no national discussion about sending troops there to combat crime. Between the lines: Rural crime often gets overlooked because most media outlets are centered in urban areas and focus just on crime there, Ralph Weisheit, a criminal justice professor at Illinois State University, tells Axios.The reasons for crime in rural areas vary, but Weisheit said in many cases, communities have been ravaged by drug addiction.

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