I know you hear surveys like this all the time. “The FBI’s most dangerous cities in America.“ “This newspapers most dangerous cities in America.”

But here’s why I trust the one that Neighborhood Scout puts out more than the others. You see, many cities are served by more than one law enforcement agency. Some are protected by municipal police. Others could be served by county sheriffs, transit police, park or port police. But Neighborhood Scout takes all crimes reported by all agencies into account when they make their lists.

Here’s how they determine who makes the list. And the list is based on cities with 25,000 or more people. What they consider violent crime is homicide, rape, armed robbery and aggravated assault. To arrive at the “violent crime rate per 1,000 population” number, they use this formula: the number of violent crimes per city, divided by the population of each city and then divided that number by 1,000. Then they list the Top 100.

The list also includes your chances of being a victim of a violent crime in that city.

The researchers ask you to keep in mind that these numbers are not released until about 10 months after the close of the calendar year so this new list for 2021 is actually based on 2019 statistics. And here’s what they say.

After a couple of years of relative safety, Atlantic City made it was back into the list at number 99 out of the top 100 with a 16% increase in its violent crime rate.

Unsurprisingly, Camden, always high up on the list and this year being no exception, places at No. 9 with the violent crime rate per 1,000 residents being 15.7 and your chance of being a victim a frightening 1 in 63.

Trenton, which is no stranger to this list, ranked No. 38 with a violent crime rate of 11.4 out of 1,000 residence and a 1 in 87 chance of being a victim.

If you’re interested in seeing the entire list of the top 100 most violent cities in America, you can check it out here.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Judi Franco. Any opinions expressed are Judi's own.

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