Editors Note: By Someone who understand Stats: It All Depends On How It’s Reported
JACKSON, Tenn. — To get a full understanding of crime rates in West Tennessee communities, we calculated the crime rate per capita of the larger population centers in each of the counties in our viewing area.
Here are our findings.
For this report, we used the FBI’s uniform crime report, or UCR, this is a database that collects crime statistics from law enforcement agencies across the country.
First, we looked at violent crime offender vs victim statistics across the entire state of Tennessee from the most recent year available on the UCR, 2022.
You were most likely to be an offender or a victim of a violent crime if you are between ages 20-29, with males making up the vast majority of offenders and the slight majority for victims.
Caucasians made up the majority of victims at 22,373 and African Americans in second at 22,145 thousand.
Over 70 percent of Tennessee’s population is white.
The majority of these offenses happened at a residence and the majority of offenders were not known to the victim.
The most likely weapon to be used is a handgun, and the most common offense is weapon law violations, with damage to property second, and simple assault third.
Now, to take a closer look at West Tennessee, and find a crime per 100 people for some of our largest cities, we went to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Crime In Tennessee Report.
In this report, the TBI utilizes the Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System or TIBRS, which compiles data based on crimes reported to law enforcement.
To get a figure of crime per 100 people, we utilized the various police departments data.
To determine an amount of violent crimes per 100 people, you take the total number of violent crimes reported in a city, divide it by its population then multiply by 100 and get a rate of crimes per 100 people– meaning for every 100 people in the city, a specific number has reported a violent crime.
The safest of the cities according to the statistics is Medina with 3.1 people out of 100 reporting a violent crime.
Next is Huntingdon and Alamo both at 4.2.
After them, is Henderson at 4.6, followed by Mckenzie at 5.3, Trenton at 6.9, Humboldt at 7.3, Milan at 7.8.
Lexington has a crime rate of 10.9 per 100 people, and Jackson has a rate of 11.4.
Interestingly, Savannah, had a crime rate per 100 people that was higher than Jackson at 12.5.
Another notable stand out with a crime rate higher than Jackson is Dyersburg at 14.9, and for those curious, Memphis’ crime rate per 100 people is 18.4.
