RANKED: Alaska, New Mexico and Tennessee top the list of states with the highest rates of murder, rape and other violent crime, while Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont have the lowest, study says
- Alaska has the highest violent crime rates: 837.8 per 100,000 people
- The Last Frontier has more men and more heavy drinkers than elsewhere in the U.S.
- Lawmen are spread thin across the vast 665,000 square mile territory
- Indigenous people also make up 19.6 percent of the state’s population
- Low-crime states like Maine and Vermont benefit from 'social safety nets', experts say
- Still, most crime is 'hyper-concentrated' in rough parts of a city, says expert Rafael Mangual
Alaska, New Mexico and Tennessee have the highest rates of murder, rape and other violent crimes in the United States, while Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont have the lowest, according to a study released this week.
Alaska topped the list with 837.8 violent crimes committed per 100,000 people, according to a breakdown of FBI data from 2020 on rates for murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery and assault across the U.S.
It was followed by New Mexico, with 778.2 violent crimes per 100,000 people, then Tennessee, with 672.7 violent crimes per 100,000 people — all well above the national average of 398.5 crimes for every 100,000 people.
At the other end of the spectrum were three northern states — Maine, with just 108.6 violent crimes per 100,000 people, followed by New Hampshire (146.4 violent crimes per 100,000 people) and Vermont (173.4 violent crimes per 100,000 people).
Police investigate the scene of an early morning fatal shooting along in downtown Anchorage, Alaska, the state with the highest rate of violent crime in the U.S.
Police investigate the scene of an early morning fatal shooting in downtown Anchorage, Alaska. High crime rates in the state are an effect of men significantly outnumbering women, excessive alcohol consumption, and because lawmen are spread thin across the vast territory
Rafael Mangual, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute think tank, says he's battling 'calls for mass decarceration and de-policing'
The list was compiled by Texas-based firm Law Office of Jorge Vela.
A spokesman for the firm said in a statement there were ‘considerable difference between the rates of recorded violent crime between the states that feature at the top and bottom of this list’.
Criminologists told DailyMail.com there were few surprises in the study.
Alaska has long had among the highest crime rates in the U.S. — an effect of men significantly outnumbering women, excessive alcohol consumption, and because lawmen are spread thin across the vast territory.
Clark Neily, a legal analyst at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said Alaska also had a large indigenous population — 19.6 percent of the state’s total —according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
'When you have relatively large numbers of historically disenfranchised and economically depressed people, it's very uncommon for that marginalization not to be associated with social challenges like substance abuse and high crime rates,' said Neily.
Maine, Vermont and other northeastern states with relatively low rates of violent crime likely benefited from ‘social safety nets’ helping people combat drug addiction or flee violent partners, cutting the incidents of crime, added Neily.
Rafael Mangual, a scholar at the Manhattan Institute, a right wing think tank, and author of Criminal (In)Justice, said 'comparing state crime rates is of limited utility' due to the 'hyper-concentration of crime'.
‘In many cases, a state’s violent crime rate will be significantly driven by a small handful of neighborhood segments in the state’s biggest cities,’ Mangual told DailyMail.com.
Many of the states ranked poorly by the survey — such as New Mexico, Tennessee, and Arkansas — had at least one major city with a crime problem and a relatively low state-wide population, added Mangual.
Memphis law enforcers sift through dirt looking for evidence at a crime scene in the city in Tennessee, where 672.7 violent crimes were committed for every 100,000 people in 2020
A man naps against a tree overlooking Casco Bay during mild, sunny weather in Maine, the U.S. state with the lowest rate of violent crime
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