Different towns in Pennsylvania have different levels of safety, even though the state has a lot of history, culture, and beautiful scenery. There are higher rates of violent and property crimes in some places, making them less safe for residents and visitors. Looking at the most current information from the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, this article will try to figure out which city in Pennsylvania has the worst crime rate in the whole state.
The Uniform Crime Reporting Program is what it sounds like
The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program brings together about 18,000 city, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement organizations to work together on statistics. These groups freely give information about crimes that have been reported in their areas.
Four types of violent crimes are tracked by the UCR Program: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter; rape; robbery; and severe assault; and seven types of property crimes are tracked, including burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. The UCR Program also keeps an eye on hate crimes, trafficking in people, and goods theft.
Every year, the UCR Program puts together reports using the information that involved agencies send in. These reports give useful criminal data to help police run, manage, and administer their operations. They also help the public understand how crime affects their communities.
How do you figure out the crime rate?
When you divide the number of people living in a place by the number of people who live there, you get the crime rate. It lets you compare crimes in different areas or over time. It is usually given as the number of crimes per 100,000 people. For instance, if 500 crimes are recorded in a city of 50,000 people in one year, its crime rate is 1,000 per 100,000 people.
You can figure out crime rates for different types of crimes, like violent or property crimes, and for different areas, like states, counties, or towns. These rates make it easier to figure out how much crime there is in different places.
Find the Pennsylvania city with the highest crime rate
New information from the UCR Program shows that McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, had the highest crime rate in 2020. McKees Rocks is a town in Allegheny County, about 15 miles west of Pittsburgh. It has a population of 6,046 people and a crime index of 2. This shockingly shows that McKees Rocks is only 2% safer than other towns in the U.S.
There were a total of 6,409 reported crimes in McKees Rocks in 2020. There were 1,687 serious crimes and 4,723 property crimes. In McKees Rocks, there were 27,900 violent crimes for every 100,000 people. This was more than 15 times the state average of 1,757 violent crimes for every 100,000 people. In the same way, the rate of property theft was 78,100 per 100,000 people, which was over 22 times higher than the state average of 3,518 per 100,000 people.
With 1,276 cases, aggravated attack was the most common violent crime in McKees Rocks. With 3,403 cases, larceny-theft was the most common property crime. People who lived in McKees Rocks had a 58/58 chance of being a victim of a physical crime and a 22/22 chance of being a victim of a property crime.
Things that make McKees Rocks’ high crime rate possible
It can be hard to figure out exactly why crime rates are so high in a certain area. There are, however, a number of possible reasons why the crime rate in McKees Rocks is so high.
Poverty: The poverty rate in McKees Rocks is about 32%, which is much higher than the state average of about 13%. Conditions that make people more likely to commit crimes include not being able to go to school, being unemployed, abusing drugs, having mental health problems, and being left out of social groups.
Drugs: As a result of its long history of drug abuse and addiction, McKees Rocks has been called “the heroin capital” by some local news sites. Drugs can make violence and property crimes more likely by increasing the demand for illegal drugs, causing fights between drug sellers and users, making it harder to control your impulses and bad decisions, and lowering your fear of what might happen.
Gangs: McKees Rocks has been a hub for drug trade, robberies, extortion, and murder for many years, and there have been turf wars and gang activity there for decades. Gangs can make violent and property crimes worse by making rivalries between groups worse, making members more loyal and disciplined, hiring young people who are easy to target, and making it harder for police to do their jobs.
Ideas for lowering the crime rate in McKees Rocks
Getting the crime rate in McKees Rocks down is a difficult task that needs a broad and collaborative approach involving many groups, including the police, the government, neighborhood groups, and social service agencies. Among the possible ways to lower the crime rate in McKees Rocks are the following:
Prevention: The goal of prevention programs is to deal with the reasons why people do bad things and keep them from doing them again. Some of these programs are job and education opportunities, health care access, recreational activities for teens and adults who are at risk, drug treatment and counseling services, and community policing and outreach efforts to help people trust and work with the police.
Intervention: The goal of intervention programs is to stop or lessen the harm caused by ongoing criminal behavior and keep people from breaking the law again. Some of these programs are diversion, mediation, and restorative justice for minor offenders; probation, parole, and reentry programs for high-risk offenders; and victim aid and support programs for people who have been hurt by crime.
Enforcement: The goal of enforcement is to find criminals, bring them to justice, and stop people from committing crimes in the future. This could mean that police patrols, surveillance, and data gathering are increased, that local, state, and federal agencies work together better, and that serious and repeat offenders get harsher punishments.
Conclusion
The most current data from the UCR Program shows that Pennsylvania’s most dangerous city is McKees Rocks. The borough has high rates of both violent and property crimes, which makes it less safe for both residents and tourists. Poverty, drug problems, and gang action are some of the things that contribute to McKees Rocks’ high crime rate. To solve this problem, we need to work together on a wide range of programs that include prevention, intervention, and regulation.