Austin Ranks Among Nation's Safest Cities

Austin remains the nation's fifth safest large city, according to the latest annual rankings published by Morgan Quitno Press. The Lawrence, Kansas-based research firm placed Dallas and Houston on the other side of the spectrum -- both are among the country's most dangerous, at sixth and tenth, respectively. Meanwhile, our northern neighbors in Round Rock should be happy to know that they're still living in of the overall safest cities, despite dropping to thirteenth from number eight last year.

In order to come up with the rankings, Morgan Quitno collected last year's statistics in six crime categories for each city — murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft — weighing each city's numbers compared to the national average with each criminal act given equal consideration. In other words, a murder in, say, Memphis would be worth the same number of points as a car jacking in San Diego. Curiously, no cities in Illinois were included, as their "rape numbers" don't meet the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) guidelines set forth by the FBI.

According to state statisticians, the state of Illinois tracks "sexual assault," which includes not only female rapes, but also offenses such as male rape, sodomy, etc. For these reasons, Chicago and other Illinois cities once again are not found in this year's Safest City rankings.

The full rankings: (Cities with 500,000+ Population)

Related:
CBS 42: Austin Tops List Of Safest Places In The Country
KXAN: Austin Named 5th Safest City
KVUE: Study: Round Rock one of safest cities

Photo by Ashley Robin on flickr