Study Calls Near Southeast One of Country’s Most Dangerous Neighborhoods

October 4, 2010
2 Comments

Near Southeast has been identified as one of the country’s most dangerous neighborhoods, according to a list compiled by WalletPop.com using data from a service called NeighborhoodScout.com. Out of 25 neighborhoods on the list, the area that includes the Navy Yard ranked #9.

Needless to say, the inclusion of this section of DC on the list was confusing/angering to some. From JDLand:

Near Southeast???? Near Southeast, which hasn’t had a murder since 2005, and has had a grand total of seven assaults with a deadly weapon this year? And yet somehow this “exclusive data developed by Dr. Andrew Schiller’s team at NeighborhoodScout.com” is predicting that there will be 240 violent crimes in the neighborhood each year.

The data used by NeighborhoodScout.com has been called into question in the past, particularly crime statistics that differ markedly from statistics provided by local police departments in the cities the site analyzes.

This year, the West Lake Street neighborhood on the west side of Chicago was identified as the most dangerous in the country, however the Chicago CBS affiliate found that dubious achievement hard to believe:

“The “neighborhood” named the most dangerous in the report corresponds directly to Census Tract 280500, which ranks toward the middle for crime among city neighborhoods.

Of the city’s 873 Census tracts, the “W. Lake St.” neighborhood tied for 417th for overall crime, with a total of 324 crimes reported in the past year. For violent crime, the neighborhood ranked 349th, with a total of 29 violent crimes reported in the past year.”

NeighborhoodScout.com says that the crime stats that it uses for neighborhoods are calculated using algorithms that analyze crime figures for the whole city combined with FBI stats.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/study_calls_near_southeast_one_of_countrys_most_dangerous_neighborhoods/2539

2 Comments

DrD said at 5:45 pm on Monday October 4, 2010:
As it relates to Near Southeast, this study is inaccurate and outdated at best, if not altogether fictional.

For instance, it states that the neighborhood is 97% black and the largest share of the population are persons 0-17. As a resident, the neighborhood seems very racially diverse, upwardly professional, and full of 20/30 somethings.

In terms of crime, the neighborhood feels very safe and welcoming. Tons of police given the proximity to the DOT and the Hill. Local reporting about the neighborhood shows that crime is rarely discussed, and when it is, the focus is on how things have vastly improved since the neighborhood’s renaissance.

I love living here and hope that we still live in a world where facts matter. I’m also not the first to blast the neighborhoodscout’s accuracy and won’t be the last.

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/oct/04/police-13th-most-dangerous-neighborhood-country-no/