February 06, 2015
NeighborhoodScout.com/for PhillyVoice
The rate of violent crime per population in Camden is found to be higher than in any other city in the U.S.
There’s a greater chance of becoming the victim of a violent crime in Camden than in any other city in the country, according to a new report by NeighborhoodScout.com.
The website, which provides crime, school and real estate data to prospective home and business buyers, analyzed the number of violent crimes reported, including murder, forcible rape, aggravated assault and armed robbery, per 1,000 residents in U.S. cities with 25,000 or more people.
NeighborhoodScout.com said on its site that it uses the most recent final, non-preliminary data as classified by the FBI, and that the latest complete set of crime data available for the country is for 2013.
In the story on its website, NeighborhoodScout.com says that "in the past year, Camden has seen 1,895 violent crimes."
However, in a chart on a separate page, Camden is listed as having 1,973 violent crimes. NeighborhoodScout.com said that equates to 25.66 annual violent crimes per 1,000 residents, which is more than six times the national average of 3.8 violent crimes per 1,000 people.
Dan Keashen, director of public relations at Camden City Hall, called the study inaccurate.
"It's really a bogus report," he said.
He forwarded data that put the number of violent crimes in 2013 at 1,950 and in 2014 at 1,550.
There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy in the numbers.
Calls to NeighborhoodScout.com were not returned Friday afternoon.
The website ranked Chester, which is in Delaware County, as the second-most dangerous city in America, and Atlantic City and Wilmington, Del., at eighth and ninth, respectively, while Philadelphia took the 55th spot.
"It hurts us," Thaddeus Kirkland, a state representative who is running for mayor of Chester, said about the ranking. "We are trying to reinvent ourselves because we are trying to bring businesses and industry into our city."
The safety of your city “is not how big your economy is, but what type of economy you have. What types of jobs, and who is attracted to those jobs,” NeighborhoodScout.com said.
