Houston Doesn't Fare Well on 'America's Most Dangerous Cities' List

Houston, we have a problem. It's called crime, and according to law enforcement agency data, the Bayou City is among the most dangerous cities in America.

Neighborhood Scout recently released its 2017 list of the 100 Most Dangerous Cities in America, and though Houston occupies spot number 81, the news is not good. Here's how the organization summarizes it:

With a crime rate of 54 per one thousand residents, Houston has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes — from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One's chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 18. Within Texas, more than 96% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Houston. In fact, after researching dangerous places to live, NeighborhoodScout found Houston to be one of the top 100 most dangerous cities in the U.S.A.

Indeed, according to data released by the Houston Police department this week, violent crime in the city rose nearly 8 percent from 2015 to 2016.

Neighborhood Scout used the most recent final annual crime data available — 2015's —to compile its list, which culls information from more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide, including the FBI. According to the numbers, there were 22,184 reported violent crimes in Houston in that period, and 101,879 property crimes, which translates to 9.69 annual violent crimes per 1,000 residents and 44.48 annual property crimes per 1,000 residents.

Here's Neighborhood Scout on Houston's murder rate:

Significantly, based on the number of murders reported by the FBI and the number of residents living in the city, NeighborhoodScout's analysis shows that Houston experiences one of the higher murder rates in the nation when compared with cities and towns for all sizes of population, from the largest to the smallest.

Drilling down on its data, Neighborhood Scout reports that Houston experienced 305 murders in the same period, or 0.13 per 1,000 residents, while the U.S. number was 15,696, or 0.05 per 1,000 residents. In the rape category, Houston tallied 999 (0.44 per 1,000), the U.S. 124,047 (0.39). Finally, Houston robberies numbered 10,324 (4.51 per 1,000), while the number of robberies in the U.S. at large was 327,374 (1.02 per 1,000). The latter category is especially illuminating, as the property crime rate in Houston is, according to Neighborhood Scout, among the highest in the nation.

The other Texas cities on Neighborhood Scout's Top 100 list are Beaumont (92); Lubbock (85); Balch Springs (75); and Odessa (66). For comparison, here is a list of the Top 10 Safest Cities in Texas.

— Image courtesy Texas Department of Criminal Justice