7. Atlantic City, New Jersey
The 2012 murder of 2 Canadian tourists in broad daylight brought sensationalistic headlines – the Philadelphia Daily News declared Atlantic city a TOURIST DEATH TRAP.
Although it was later revealed that the attacker was a woman with a history of schizophrenia, the incident did bring the national spotlight onto a tourism driven city that – outside of its boardwalk – is just like any other poor urban area in the US that’s struggling to keep upper and middle class citizens.
Chances of being a victim of violent crime in Atlantic City is 1 in 53, while your odds of being victimized by property crime is as high as 1 in 13. However, those numbers are significantly lower on the highly policed boardwalk areas.
6. Detroit, Michigan
Depending on the statistics used, Detroit sometimes ranks #2 or even #1 as the United States’ most dangerous city. Using FBI’s violent crime data for cities with a population greater than 25,000 however, Detroit sits at #6 heading into 2013. With a population of 706,585, Detroit is also the largest city to make the top 10 list of the most dangerous cities in the USA.
Detroit has a per capita violent crime rate of 1348 per 100,000 citizens, and an overall crime rate of 8400 per 100,000 residents. Detroit has one of the highest car theft rates in all of the United States, with 1 in 62 residents experiencing a car theft every year.