That's not necessarily being manipulative. In Chicago there are many neighborhoods larger than 34K that see no homicides in a given year. There are a few real bad areas of Chicago and many areas that are actually pretty safe. The areas with no murders just don't make the news.
I wholeheartedly agree with you that there are many areas in Chicago that are not as bad as others. Not arguing that at all. what I am saying is there were over 765 people killed in Chicago, vs 14 in another small town and the other town has a higher "Murder rate". even though 751 less people were murdered there due to using the Rate vs the total number of people murdered. So while the data isn't lying, it is manipulating the "message".
Also, going along with manipulating the message, I live in Reno, a lot less people get murdered in Reno than in Las Vegas, but, I am still part of Nevada so we get lumped into the "Nevada" group we are listed as 27th, middle of the pack when you look at 2019 Murder rate with a rating of 4.6. In 2019 the news said murders in Clark county (Las Vegas) Plummeted to 144 out of a population of 634k people living in Clark county. There were 12 murdered in Reno population around 450K people. Interesting that most stats show there were a total of 143 murders in Nevada in 2019 - when did 144 + 12 equal 143, and what about the rest of the state? There is more to Nevada than Clark county and Reno.
Also, if you sort by total murders not murder rate, Nevada ends up at 32nd with a 4.6 murder rate not 26th. There is a difference of 318 dead people or 76 delta between 26 and 32 those positions and the states between them are Washington, New Mexico, Wisconsin, DC, and Massachusetts.
Interesting enough, sorting by murder rate, DC has the highest at 23.5 with 166 murders and California, with a murder rate of 4.3 (lower than Nevada) has the most murders by state at 1690. While Illinois is at 6.6 and 832 murders.
So, what are the stats really telling us? What do you want the stats to tell you, one way California is safer then Nevada and DC, another DC is the worst, California can be displayed as the largest number of murders or 24th on the list if you go by rate.
The total number murdered in a state or city, the Rate of people murdered in a state or city, the ranking of that state by total or by rate, etc.
Here is the link I used of Wikipedia (not the most reliable I know, but this is supposedly sourced from the FBI - Crimes in the US database)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_intentional_homicide_rate
Yes, you can manipulate the message.
If you ask yourself prior to reading this what is the worst state for murders in the US, you might think Illinois, or DC, but the truth is California has more total murders than either of those based on this chart, followed by Texas and Florida.
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