When researching travel locations, a reasonable concern during the search is the safety of the area and things to look out for. Common aids are government funded sites that provide tips and personal experiences advising what areas to stay away from.
Similar to how foreign countries can be an enigma to Americans, the United States can be the same to potential foreign travelers. Earlier last month, The Washington Post published a list of the top 16 cities that foreign countries warn people about. Cities such as New York, Chicago, New Orleans, St. Louis, and Houston were listed. Atlanta also made the cut.
The French in particular found Atlanta to be dangerous for travel. According to France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, visitors are nervous about the southern part of the city and the downtown area after dark.
This leads to the question of how dangerous downtown Atlanta actually is. In recent reports made by the Atlanta Police Department, reported crimes have decreased.
In the year 2012, burglary reports dropped the most by 24 percent followed by rape reports that dropped by 17 percent. A total of 34,581 crime reports were filed in 2012, a decrease of 1,720 from the previous year. The FBI reported that from 2001 to 2009 the crime rate in Atlanta dropped by 40 percent. In addition, homicide
rates are currently the second lowest they have been in 50 years according the annual evaluation from the Atlanta Police Department
The city of Atlanta does not make the list of most dangerous cities in the United States released by the FBI each year. However, due to high population, diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, close living quarters, and city attractions, there are higher crime rates in large metropolitan cities such as metropolitan Atlanta than in small cities on the countryside. According to the 1994 Statistical Abstract of the United States, metropolitan areas have 18 percent more crime than other American cities and 200 percent more crime than rural areas. Yet, nationwide violent crimes are up by .7 percent while in Atlanta the violent crime
rate is down by .05 percent.
The FBI has released a statement warning people who put faith in studies that rank cities based on crime reports. It stated that these studies oftentimes do not take in account the many variables that characterize a particular city and are therefore oftentimes misleading.
While France has a lower crime rate than the United States as a whole, individual cities face a significant amount of crime. The smallest metropolitan city in France, Montpellier, has murder rates higher than the national average. Compared to France, there are no significant differences in crime in the United States when one takes into consideration the distribution between cities.
