Louisiana Has the Nation’s Highest Violent Crime Rate, According to FBI

10.23.22 – Center Square — Samuel Stebbins

The FBI recently released its annual Uniform Crime Report, offering a statistical documentation of crime in the United States in 2021. Historically, the UCR has provided a comprehensive snapshot of crime in each of the 50 states, but this year, the picture is incomplete.

Due to a change in reporting systems – from the legacy Summary Reporting System to the new National Incident-Based Reporting System – many police departments across the country did not submit cime data to the FBI. As a result, nine states were excluded from this year’s UCR: Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Whether or not 2021 crime estimates for these places will eventually be released remains to be seen – but for the states with available data, the latest UCR offers some useful insight into 2021 violent crime trends.

Violent crime is a broad category that consists of four types of the most serious offenses: robbery, rape, aggravated assault, and homicide. In Louisiana, there were 26,078 violent crimes reported in 2021, or 564 for every 100,000 people, the highest violent crime rate among the 41 states with available data. Meanwhile, the national violent crime rate (based on the incomplete data) stands at 334 incidents per 100,000 people.

While it is not always the case, violent crime is often more common in economically disadvantaged areas with high poverty rates and lower levels of social integration. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey, the poverty rate across Louisiana stands at 19.6%, compared to the 12.8% national poverty rate.

Rank	State	Violent crimes per 100,000 people, 2021	Poverty rate (%)
1	Louisiana	564	19.6
2	Arkansas	556	16.3
3	Alabama	518	16.1
4	Tennessee	498	13.6
5	Alaska	451	10.5
6	Missouri	425	12.7
7	Michigan	416	13.1
8	Colorado	404	9.7
9	South Carolina	404	14.6
10	Oklahoma	393	15.6
11	Texas	391	14.2
12	Montana	389	11.9
13	Nevada	377	14.1
14	South Dakota	357	12.3
15	Kansas	346	11.7
16	North Carolina	323	13.4
17	Delaware	322	11.6
18	Oregon	321	12.2
19	West Virginia	316	16.8
20	Georgia	306	14.0
21	Washington	296	9.9
22	Ohio	288	13.4
23	Wisconsin	282	10.8
24	Minnesota	278	9.3
25	Iowa	275	11.1
26	Indiana	272	12.2
27	Massachusetts	270	10.4
28	North Dakota	246	11.1
29	Kentucky	240	16.5
30	Utah	226	8.6
31	Arizona	218	12.8
32	Nebraska	217	10.8
33	Wyoming	215	11.4
34	Idaho	212	11.0
35	Mississippi	202	19.4
36	Virginia	194	10.2
37	Rhode Island	184	11.4
38	Vermont	170	10.3
39	Connecticut	150	10.1
40	New Hampshire	127	7.2
41	Maine	108	11.5