Factors involved in violent crime rates in Minneapolis (St. Cloud: apartment, crime rate)

[Isabel_009]

The other day a person was jumped by a bunch of thugs in my neighborhood - right outside my apartment window, in fact. I yelled out the window that I was calling police and then I heard nothing. Scared that this person had been seriously injured I went down stairs a few minutes later. The police were already on scene. The victim was okay (i.e., not seriously wounded as far as I could tell), although quite banged up and bloodied. I felt quite sad and shaken up about the incident, perhaps because I thought something like that wouldn't happen around here in Uptown (perhaps naively).

Anyway, it made me wonder about crime rates. I discovered that Minneapolis has a very, very high rate of rape for a US city, and also a relatively high rate of aggravated assault. Just curious if anyone has any insight into what might account for this? Any theories? I'm not sure how correlated city size tends to be with violent crime - perhaps it is to a certain point but then when it becomes too expensive to live in the large city and gentrification occurs, then the crime rates go down. Who knows. I do know that New York's rape rate in 2008 was exceptionally low. I'm guessing that poverty is a major factor in higher rape rates, but I'm wondering if there are other factors that might contribute to these rates that I haven't considered.

I don't know the city that well, given that I only moved here less than a year ago, but I'm also wondering if there a lot of poverty in Minneapolis compared to other cities (on average) of the same size? I know it's difficult to talk in terms of averages, but I'm just wondering how Minneapolis stacks up.

Lastly, just a note that I got the stats from here: United States cities by crime rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By the way, I found it interesting that Miami's rape rate is so low yet assault and robbery are so high.

[chrisrobhill]

U of M, maybe?

[Ben Around]

Some variation in crime rates, (especially rape) are explained by variations in reporting. In other words, what one city PD might report as a rape, another might report as an assault, or not report at all.

[Isabel_009]

Good point.

Originally Posted by Ben Around

Some variation in crime rates, (especially rape) are explained by variations in reporting. In other words, what one city PD might report as a rape, another might report as an assault, or not report at all.

[Radical_Car]

It is very naive to think nothing will happen where you live, whether the biggest city in the world or the smallest. Not that long ago in St Cloud not all that far from I live someone was shot in an apartment in the middle of the night by someone who randomly shot an apartment window in the middle of the night.
Stray Bullet Hits Woman In St. Cloud Apartment - wcco.com (http://wcco.com/crime/stray.bullet.shooting.2.1685433.html - broken link)

Even though stuff does indeed happen wherever you are, I still don't lose any sleep over it.

[mnduck]

Not to over-generalize, but you sure don't hear about this happening that much in this area....

One dead in shooting near Calhoun Parkway | StarTribune.com (http://www.startribune.com/local/94811304.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4OW3ckUiD 3aPc:_Yyc:aUac8HEaDiaMDCinchO7DU - broken link)

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Ben Around

Some variation in crime rates, (especially rape) are explained by variations in reporting. In other words, what one city PD might report as a rape, another might report as an assault, or not report at all.

I would say this is the main reason why the stats are so off. I would also say that people in MN are probably more likely to report the crime itself vs other parts of the county, especially in areas where there is a high illegal immigrant population for obvious reasons.

[smith21]

statistics dont show everything. minneapolis worst neighborhoods are not that bad. from lowry to plymouth and pen to 94 on the northside or 38st to 18st and 35w to hiawatha on the southside. maybe those areas are bad by minnesota standards but after going to milwaukee and chicago i realize that minneapolis is not bad at all. i dont feel uncomfortable walking around in any neighborhood in minneapolis no matter the time of day.

[uptown_urbanist]

Originally Posted by mnduck

Not to over-generalize, but you sure don't hear about this happening that much in this area....

One dead in shooting near Calhoun Parkway | StarTribune.com (http://www.startribune.com/local/94811304.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4OW3ckUiD 3aPc:_Yyc:aUac8HEaDiaMDCinchO7DU - broken link)

^This is definitely a very rare thing in that area (not Uptown, by the way); the latest reports are that it was some sort of dispute between people who knew each other, not a robbery or random crime, and yes, unfortunately things like that can happen anywhere.

Crime in the Twin Cities still tends to be heavily concentrated in certain areas, and generally the rates are fairly low in Uptown. I haven't heard about the incident in the original question (hope it's reported in the local papers) -- do you have a sense of if it was random or not? Not that non-random crime isn't also an issue, of course. Was there alcohol involved? Uptown is generally a pretty safe place, but there are a lot of people passing through, there are a lot of bars and sometimes there are alcohol-related issues after closing. I wish there was more money for more walking or biking cops in the neighborhoods, too; there's some, but like everywhere, budgets are tight.

Minneapolis certainly isn't a utopia, but I agree that the reporting factor could also be an issue. I'd be curious to hear what the criminal experts have to say on the topic.

[Isabel_009]

Re: the incident that occurred on Saturday that I was referring to in the original post, it was random. I know this from overhearing the unfolding of the incident outside my apt and also listening to the police talk with the victim talk and the witnesses. It was 10:30 at night (not late by any means) and this young guy was walking alone and jumped/beaten up by a group of young guys who then ran off towards the lakes along Lagoon. They took his backpack. The witnesses identified the assailants as somalian, but of course I'm not sure if they really were accurate in making this judgment. I don't believe this incident was reported in the papers anywhere, unfortunately. I think such incidents might be worth publicizing to some extent so that people are a little more aware. I think this guy must have met his assailants while walking along the mall area or nearby, just east of Uptown station

I recognize that crime can happen anywhere, but what concerns me more is how rare certain crimes really are in certain areas. I mean, incidents like the one I describe might not be so rare, they just get reported in the media infrequently. The assault seemed pretty vicious to me, but he wasn't critically wounded, so perhaps this isn't considered newsworthy. :S

The police were there pretty quickly, but they seemed a bit hapless. For example, they kept referring to the injured guy as the "bloody guy" and the victimizers as the "bad guys" when questioning the witnesses, which didn't impress me much. When I told them the little bit of information that I had they said, "Don't worry ma'am, we'll catch the bad guys." ??? They seemed to be more interested in putting on a show than actually working fast to apprehend the assailants.

Anyway, that's just an aside and personal observation - perhaps I'm wrong and the police here are really sharp.

I too am curious about what the experts have to say on this topic.

Also, I'm on a list to get updates on crime in the neighbourhood, but I think it's only "serious" crimes or patterns of activity.

Originally Posted by uptown_urbanist

^This is definitely a very rare thing in that area (not Uptown, by the way); the latest reports are that it was some sort of dispute between people who knew each other, not a robbery or random crime, and yes, unfortunately things like that can happen anywhere.

Crime in the Twin Cities still tends to be heavily concentrated in certain areas, and generally the rates are fairly low in Uptown. I haven't heard about the incident in the original question (hope it's reported in the local papers) -- do you have a sense of if it was random or not? Not that non-random crime isn't also an issue, of course. Was their alcohol involved? Uptown is generally a pretty safe place, but there are a lot of people passing through, there are a lot of bars and sometimes there are alcohol-related issues after closing. I wish there was more money for more walking or biking cops in the neighborhoods, too; there's some, but like everywhere, budgets are tight.

Minneapolis certainly isn't a utopia, but I agree that the reporting factor could also be an issue. I'd be curious to hear what the criminal experts have to say on the topic.