The Relationship Between Crime and City Size

Introduction

Crime could be defined as any unlawful act that is punishable by the authorities. There are varied types of crime and are majorly divided into two, namely violent and property crime. Violent crimes are such as murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Property crime on the other hand includes burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft. Crime has been on the rise globally and this could be linked to the rise in levels of affluence. It however varies from region to region. This report is a summary of the relationship between types of crime and city size and location.

Top Five Metropolitan Areas with the Highest Crime Rates

The above graph focuses on the top five metropolitan areas with the highest crime rates. Generally, property crime rates tend to be higher than violent crimes. Miami-Miami Beach is leading in both with a total of about 12,300 crimes per 100,000 people. Compared to the other 4, Miami-Miami Beach seems to be very unsafe. San Antonio, Jacksonville, West Palm Beach and Fresno are having rates between 8700 and 9500 per 100,000 people. San Antonio despite being second in total crimes, has the least violent crime rate at 653.

Regional Crime Rates

The above graph shows the average total crimes within the 4 regions. The south region tends to lead in total crime rates followed by the west, north central and lastly the north east with the least. The population size seems to have a slight effect on the rate of crime. For example in the south region, the largest populated regions have the highest total crime. However, for North East region, the medium populated areas have the highest total crime rate. Generally, the small populated areas tend to have a lower total crime rate. Let’s further break down by regions and types of crime to establish whether there’s a distinct trend.

Crime Rates by Region and Type

As we can see, the mountain region in the west has the highest levels of property crime, at an average of 6,000 to 6,800 crimes per 100,000 people. The property crime rates in the pacific areas range from 5500-5800 per 100,000 people. The small populated pacific areas tend to have a lower violent crime rate than the small populated mountain areas. Violent crime rate however is lowest in the medium population sized mountain areas. Generally, the crime rates tend not to be influenced much by the population sizes in the west region.

In the south region, the West South Central areas with medium population size have the highest property crime rate. For the large populated areas, South Atlantic seems to have a higher property crime rate than West South Central. In the small sized populated areas, the average violent crime rate is lowest compared to the medium and large sized populated areas. In general the small populated areas have the least crime rates with the medium populated areas having the highest crime rates.

The medium populated areas of West North Central have the highest property crime rate. The violent crime rate is lowest in the small populated areas of West North Central. In general, the medium populated areas tend to have the highest crime rates followed by the large populated areas. The small populated areas have the lowest crime rates.

In the large populated areas of the North east region, Middle Atlantic leads on both property and violent crime rates. Violent crime rates are highest in the large populated areas. In the medium populated areas, New England leads in property crime while the violent crime rates remain equal for both New England and Middle Atlantic. Property crime is highest in the small populated areas at an average of 5000 crimes per 100,000 people. Overall, there seems to be no particular effect of population size on the crime rates.

Conclusion

From the above analyses, we are right to conclude that for South and North Central regions, the lowly populated regions are the ones with the least crime rates. For the west region, the medium populated areas have the lowest crime rates. The violent crime rates tend to be higher in the highly populated regions while property crime rates are higher in the medium populated regions.