NY Murder Rates the Figures

NY Murder Rates

The figures shown in table a.1 show the population, number of murders and murder rate for the four largest counties in metro New York City. Kings County is shown to be the runaway leader of the pack when it comes to both the number of murders and the murder rate per 100,000 residents with a total of 221 murders and a murder rate of 11.2 per 100,000 individuals, Kings County also has the largest population base with 2005 figures showing a population of 2,486,235. The second most populous county was Queens and it was also the second highest in both number and murder rate per 100,000. Queens County shows a total number of murders at 98 and a murder rate of 4.5 per 100,000 people. In comparison, Nassau County with a population of only 1,333,127 had 28 murders and a murder rate of only 2.0 per 100,000 individuals. The safest county of the four is Suffolk County with only 19 murders and a murder rate of only 1.3 murders per 100,000 citizens. Suffolk's population is 1,474,927.

One of the most interesting aspects when comparing these figures is the fact that the largest population also displays the largest number of murders and the highest murder rate per 100,000. Kings County had more than double the next largest county, over nine times as many murders as Nassau County and a citizen was over 10 times more likely to be murdered in Kings than in Suffolk County.

The eyes of any researcher would be automatically drawn towards the overwhelming discrepancy between Kings and Suffolk County.

One could almost infer that due to the large number of people in the county tensions run high and so does the murder rate. Inferring such a thing, however, may not be the correct approach to these particular numbers. After all, the population of Kings compared to Suffolk is not 10 times more, or even close to that, in fact it is not even double the number. This leads to speculation as to why the murder rate would be so much higher in a more crowded county. Research and study may provide the answer but to infer from only the information contained herein would not be the most productive method of determining the reasons behind the discrepancy.

Another disparity shown between the four counties may even be more intriguing than the difference between Kings and Suffolk. That discrepancy is the one between Suffolk and Nassau. if, as it was previously speculated, it were to be stated that the larger the population the more likely it would be that the murder rate would be higher, then Suffolk would have a slightly higher number and rate of murders than Nassau, and that is not the case. Table a.1 shows that Suffolk with a higher population base than Nassau by over 100,000 individuals has almost a fifty percent lower murder rate per thousand than does Nassau.

Other factors therefore must be taken into account than just the number of citizens a certain county contains. These factors might include such things as geographic area, inviting the question of how large are these counties geographically, and how do they compare in size to each other.

If Kings and Suffolk counties are relatively close in size and Kings contains over 1mm additional people, then one might be able to say that the living conditions of Kings county were much more crowded. The living conditions of Nassau county may be much less crowded geographically, and that could be a determinant in the discrepancy in murder rates. Additionally, the county of Suffolk may be much larger in geographic area than is Nassau, and therefore the citizens there do not feel an overwhelming claustrophobia and are much calmer and easygoing than the people in Nassau.

Again, however, determining whether people live in a much calmer environment than do their neighbors in an adjacent or nearby county is an idea of pure speculation at this point and it becomes a very difficult matter to discern without completing additional studies and research.