A new study reveals that nearly 70 percent of all the murders in the United States take place in 5 percent of the nation’s counties – and more than half of all homicides occur in just 2 percent of its counties.

According to statistics provided by the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), more than half of the counties in America registered no murders at all in 2014.

“In 2014 – the most recent year that a county level breakdown is available – 54 percent of counties (with 11 percent of the population) have no murders,” CPRC reported. “Sixty-nine percent of counties have no more than one murder, and about 20 percent of the population. These counties account for only 4 percent of all murders in the country.”

Even though the number of murders in the overwhelming majority of America’s counties is extremely low today, the percentage of murders in most counties was even lower during the last quarter of the 20th century.

“From 1977 to 2000 – on average – 73 percent of counties in any given year had zero murders,” the researchers pointed out. “Possibly, this change is a result of the opioid epidemic’s spread to more rural areas.”

Concentration of murders

It was found that a substantial proportion of homicides in the U.S. occur in an extremely small number of counties.

“The worst 1 percent of counties have 19 percent of the population and 37 percent of the murders,” the nonprofit research organization divulged. “The worst 5 percent of counties contain 47 percent of the population and account for 68 percent of murders.”

Researchers also stressed that isolating the small handful of the most homicidal counties in the U.S. would make the country appear a much safer place to live – noting that the only the counties in the top four percent have 16 or more murders.

“If the 1 percent of the counties with the worst number of murders somehow were to become a separate country, the murder rate in the rest of the U.S. would have been only 3.4 in 2014,” CPRC explained. “Removing the worst 2 percent or 5 percent would have reduced the US rate to just 3.06 or 2.56 per 100,000, respectively.”

Those conducting the study pointed out that even in the counties with the highest number of homicides – such as Los Angeles County in California, which registered the highest in 2014 at 526 – the murders are predominantly concentrated to small and distinct areas, leaving most cities within the area virtually murder-free.

A closer look …

When breaking down the numbers in some of America’s most populous cities, statistics provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and presented by The Economist unleashed homicide rates with guns and other weapons in the urban areas for the last decade of the 20th century (1990–1999) … compared to the first 16 years of the new millennium (2000–2015). Here are the homicide rates that were found:

Chicago, Illinois: 85.5 percent from 2000–2015 … up from 72.9 percent between 1990 and 1999





Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 82.6 percent from 2000–2015 … up from 76.7 percent between 1990 and 1999





Houston, Texas: 74.0 percent from 2000–2015 … down from 75.9 percent between 1990 and 1999





Los Angeles, California: 75.2 percent from 2000–2015 … down from 79.1 percent between 1990 and 1999





New York City, New York: 60.1 percent from 2000–2015 … down from 71.5 percent between 1990 and 1999

During the two years following CPRC’s findings, it is noted that the U.S. became less safe.

“Over the past two years, America has become more murderous,” The Economist emphasized in its report. “After steadily falling for a quarter-century, the national homicide rate jumped by 11 percent in 2015.”

With Chicago becoming one of America’s biggest crime capitals under Mayor Rahm Emmanuel – who served as former President Barack Obama’ Chief of Staff during his first term – President Donald Trump is showing indications that he will take the war on crime in the Windy City into his own hands.

“Last year, an escalation of gang violence in Chicago increased the number of killings there from 485 to 764,” the report continued. “Donald Trump, America’s president, has threatened to ‘send in the feds’ if Chicago doesn’t ‘fix the horrible carnage.’”

Residents beware

An account of the 30 most murderous cities in America was recently announced by Neighborhood Scout Crime Analytics, as reported by WND, which listed them off as follows: “East St. Louis, Illinois; Chester, Pennsylvania.; St. Louis, Missouri.; Baltimore; Petersburg, Virginia; Flint, Michigan; Detroit; New Orleans; Camden, New Jersey; Wilmington, Delaware; Birmingham, Alabama; Newark, New Jersey; Monroe, Louisiana; Portsmouth, Virginia; Cleveland; Jackson, Mississippi; Riviera Beach, Florida; Youngstown, Ohio; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Bessemer, Alabama; Banning, California; Hartford, Connecticut; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Salinas, California; Goldsboro, North Carolina; Desert Hot Springs, California; East Chicago, Indiana; Milwaukee and Washington, D.C.”

It was also noted that so-called “sanctuary cities” – are anything but sanctuaries for legal residents.

“Analysis of an August 2016 study shows that sanctuary cities – which protect illegal aliens from federal law-enforcement – have higher crime rates than similar cities that comply with federal immigration authorities,” WND reported. “The study, published last fall by researchers from the University of California-Riverside and Highline College in Des Moines, Washington, is frequently cited by proponents of sanctuary cities who ignore or downplay one important detail – the actual crime statistics of the carefully selected cities chosen for the comparison model.”

Contrary to what the researchers sought to discover, sanctuary cities are more dangerous places to live than cities that do not harbor criminal illegal aliens.

“[N]on-sanctuary cities comparable in population, size and demographics consistently – year over year – report lower percentages of violent crime, as well as lower percentages of property crimes,” WND’s Bob Unruh asserted.

In order to make it clear exactly what a sanctuary city is, researchers Loren Collingwood, Benjamin Gonzalez-O’Brien and Stephen El-Khatib, who also authored the study, defined it as “a city or police department that has passed a resolution or ordinance expressly forbidding city or law enforcement officials from inquiring into immigration status and/or cooperation with ICE.”

Relying more in inferences than statistical facts, the researchers’ deduction from their study was skewed – at best – go go hand-in-hand with immigration policies promoted by Leftist politicians.

“The authors admit their assumptions going into the study were that differences in crime rates would be negligible. And that’s what they concluded,” Unruh stressed. “However, their report buries the actual statistics. The statistics show, from 2000 through 2014, sanctuary cities have had higher crime rates than non-sanctuary cities, with the disparity growing over time.”