Jacksonville regains title as Murder Capital of Florida

[Ralph W]

http://jacksonville.com/premium-promo/2012-11-02/story/jacksonville-remains-murder-capital-florida

Extra, Extra, Read All About It!  But only if you pay the piper.

[I-10east]

Are these state crime numbers going by city limits, or the individual counties? To me,  the more fair stat data would be if they went by county stats, given Jax's consolidation with Duval. It seems like most murders in Jax are from disputes with people that know each other (which can happen anywhere) rather than haphazard acts of violence. 

[Tacachale]

They go by counties. In fact using the county population usually dilutes the murder rate since the highest rates tend to be in urban areas. In other words, when we were originally going by city limits, Jacksonville's rate appeared lower since the city limits include suburban areas not included for other cities. It was only when we looked at the countywide statistics that we saw how bad Jacksonville's problem really is. This said, we're usually only the highest out of counties with 500,000 or more and Miami-Dade is always right at our heels.

And no, Jacksonville's murder problem couldn't just "happen anywhere" or else we wouldn't consistently have the highest rate among the state's big counties.

[I-10east]

^^^Crime when enemies go to battle against one another can happen 'anywhere' whether it is domestic, or on the street, that's all that I'm saying. Why do people misunderstand my comments all of the time? The way the article is written, it sounds like that are referring to cities, and not counties hence 'Jacksonville' and not 'Duval' on the title; If so, that's comparing 800K some odd in Jax to about 400K in Miami, not exactly a fair & balanced way of looking at things.

I just checked the FDLE, and last year Miami Dade by far had more murders than Duval (218 in Miami Dade to the 76 in Duval). So I don't look at what's really an unfair comparison from the get-go as some scarlet letter against Jax.

[Tacachale]

The article doesn't really make it clear, but they're talking about counties. I assure you that the county stats paint a far worse picture for Jax than city limit stats, for the reasons I gave.

[I-10east]

^^^Exactly, this article isn't very clear, so I'm not putting any credence into it; Where are the numbers, and why not wait until the end of the year? Last year Miami Dade had 218 murders to Duval's 76, so I can't imagine that county numbers would 'sugarcoat' Duval's stats.

[ChriswUfGator]

What's Miami's population compared to Duval?

I suspect there might be a slight difference there.

[tufsu1]

The city of Miami is roughly 400,000 (half the size of Jax.)....Miami-Dade County is about 2.5 million

That said, the statistic is not total # of muders...it is murder rate (say # of murders per 100,000 people)....so population differences are normalized.

[thelakelander]

No matter how you spin it, we have a problem here in Duval County.

[tufsu1]

No matter how you spin it, we have a problem here in Duval County.

agreed.....normalizing the numbers into a ratio makes it clear just how bad the problem is here!

[buckethead]

Is it murder to kill zombies?

Serious question, and if I were a better writer I would offer a dissertation on the rise in zombie mania, and the potential to further desensitize the population to the plight of homeless and hungry.... a soon to be (perhaps) exponentially expanded demographic.

[Tacachale]

Sigh. I-10, the murder *rate* is the number of murders per number of residents. Miami-Dade has more murders but also more residents.

Historically, everyone only ever looked at the city limits murder rate. Because Jacksonville's city limits include a lot of suburban areas with typically lower murder rates than the urban core, the City of Jacksonville's murder rate was lower than, say, the City of Miami, which doesn't include comparable suburbs. However, comparing the county murder rates you see the real picture.

For nearly 20 years, Duval County has been at or near the top of list of murder rates among Florida's big counties. Our murder rate has stayed at the top of the list even as other crime is down. No matter how you want to justify it, this is a *huge* problem for our city.

[ben says]

The only way to solve the murder problem is to solve the murder cause: poverty. Fix THAT problem and see the statistics drop dramatically.

[I-10east]

So a stat that says 800K people in Jax (885 square miles) has a higher murder *rate* than 400K in Miami (55 square miles), that's totally 'justifed'. Ah man, Jax is like freaking Chicago, Beirut, and Gary, Ind all rolled up into one!!!! Every time I go outside my door here in Jax, I'm in fear of my life.... This stat is like comparing pre-consolidated Jax to the entire Dade county. Where are the numbers? Why deem us the highest murder rate already, when it isn't even 2013 yet?

[thelakelander]

^The stat doesn't state this.  It compares statistics per 100,000 people.  With that in mind, it wouldn't matter if the places compared were Jax, Miami, and Tallahassee.

The city of Miami is roughly 400,000 (half the size of Jax.)....Miami-Dade County is about 2.5 million

That said, the statistic is not total # of muders...it is murder rate (say # of murders per 100,000 people)....so population differences are normalized.