Memphis is a wonderful and beautiful city. It is also home to Bob Mims, who has lived here for a very long time, while also working for a foundation in Louisville.He was horrified to see the news in August that a new report at been created by university students that cited Memphis as being safer than just 1% of all cities in the country. This led to him further investigating the specific crime problems in each community.
Bob Mims Memphis Crime Issues
As a CFO, Mims understands that crime is all around us. Someone may steal golf clubs because they got fired from their job and need to raise some funds. Someone else may shoplift or resist arrest. These are all issues that will make crime statistics rise but do not necessarily make a city and safe. However, looking at the guideline that the students of the university that ranked Memphis so low for safety had followed, it seemed that there information was actually accurate.
Memphis Crime Statistics
According to the report, there were 11,964 violent crimes as well as 37,407 property crimes. This means that for every 1,000 residents 18.33 are subjected to a violent crime and 57.31 or subjected to a property crime. Comparing the violent crime figures, someone has a 1 in 55 chance of being a victim in Memphis compared to just one in 158 in the state of Tennessee. The majority of violent crimes were in relation to robbery, followed by murder, followed by rape. The rates per 1000 residents were 4.89 for robbery, 0.834 rape, and 0.3 for murder. Nationally, those rates are 1.03 for robbery, 0.44 rape, and 0.05 for murder. This does indeed make Memphis appear much less safe than other parts of the country.
Similar statistics were found for property crimes. One in 17 people in Memphis will be the victim of a property crime compared to 1 and 35 in Tennessee. The most common forms of property crime for motor vehicle theft, regular theft, and burglary. Again, people in Memphis are significantly at higher risk than in the rest of the country. Additionally, there are 152 crimes in Memphis per square mile compared to the National median of 31.9 and the Tennessee state median of just 17.
Essentially, the crime rate in Memphis is 76 for every 1000 residents. This is one of the highest in the country when compared to other similarly sized communities. Within the state of Tennessee, 97% of communities find that their crime rate is lower than that in Memphis. Indeed, Memphis is one of the 100 most dangerous cities to live in the country. It’s also seems that regardless of whether the city is compared to all towns and cities in the country, towns and cities in Tennessee only, or towns and cities that have a similar population size, Memphis always goes well and there are very few other communities in the country that have such a high crime rates.