Most Violent States Ranked in New Study
A study was recently published in which the nation's states were ranked based on how violent they were.
The study, completed by the Institute for Economics and Peace, used various crime statistics of the past 20 years to rate the level of violence in any given state.
Researchers used statistics starting from 1991 in several categories including homicide, violent crime, the rate of incarceration and the ease and availability to obtain small arms.
The study listed Louisiana as the most violent based on the criteria along with Tennessee, Nevada, Florida and Nevada, who rounded out the top five violent states. Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont were the most peaceful states, according to the study.
While it may be unsettling to consider a state to be the most violent, it should come as a comfort to highlight that even states considered to be the most violent also saw a decrease in violence over the past two decades.
"What the [report] shows is that over the past 20 years, America has become substantially more peaceful, witnessing a significant and sustained reduction in direct violence," said Steve Killelea, IEP founder and executive chairman.
"Homicide rates in the U.S. have halved since 1991 and the violent crime rate has also fallen by nearly half during the same period," he said.
The study also highlighted the economic impact that violence has on a community given the cost of judicial processes, incarceration, medical care for victims as well as the loss of productivity.
The economic cost due to violence in around $460 billion annually, according to the IEP study, and the burden varies widely depending on where a person resides.
The cost to taxpayers in Washington, D.C., is more than $7,100 per resident, while the cost to taxpayers in the most peaceful state, Maine, is only $1,280 per resident.
The decline in violence can have a positive effect on the state of the economy too. The study states that if the national violence level were to drop to that of Maine then $275 billion in extra economic activity would be generated, which has the ability to create more than 1.7 million jobs.
