Ask anybody in Atlanta these days, and most will tell you there is an upsurge in crime. Crazy stories about everything from shootouts to a girl being killed for putting too much mayo on someone’s sandwich while working at a deli being killed.
Buckhead, a once-exclusive area of Atlanta, has become a hub of violent crimes, and some say they consider Buckhead a dangerous place in Atlanta.
We also hear about a lot of crime out of Chicago, weekend shootings seem to escalate in numbers, and the number of people shot in Chicago consistently makes headlines nationally and nationally.
A recent study performed by local Atlanta news outlet 11Alive was done on a comparison of various crimes in Chicago and Atlanta. Which city has more crime? The answer may surprise you.
Variations were added to get a better measurement per capita, and the results may surprise you. 11Alive then updated their previous study in 20 and 21 to reveal the changes are … if any.
Residents worry as violent crimes in Atlanta surge. 15 people were shot over the past weekend in Atlanta, leaving many concerned for their safety as they claim violent crimes are way up.
Crime data for shootings, robberies, and car break-ins have been examined by 11Alive, who say the reader’s comments have been the common theme in their reporting.
“Turning into Chicago,” Micki Gray wrote on 11Alive’s Facebook page.
“Getting like Chicago,” Ella West commented.
“We’re catching up to Chicago,” Jonathan Glass wrote.
In 2021 similar statements comparing the two large similar cities were made. In the previous year, many people made a comparison between the two cities as well. So to find out if a person is more likely to be a victim of a crime in Atlanta versus Chicago, 11Alive set out to compare data once more.
The station decided to follow up on last year’s reporting to see if anything had changed. This is what they discovered.
THE QUESTION
Is the crime rate in Atlanta worse or the same as in Chicago?
THE SOURCES
- Atlanta Police Department Crime Data for 2021 and 2022, year to date.
- Chicago Police Department Crime Data for 2021 and 2022, year to date.
- 2020 Census Data
- May of 2021, the original story was completed.
Both police departments’ data from the past five months was used.
Statistics from January to July were looked at by 11Alive this time. Two additional months of data, compared to her last report in 2021, were studied by 11Alive’s Hope Ford.
To give a complete picture of crime in both cities, 11Alive included crime on both police departments’ websites.
THE ANSWER
Yes — for certain crimes and especially true for those that are violent.
Study Findings
To confirm, the same process as before was used by 11Alive, who went directly for the police departments’ data openly available on their websites.
Since it has 2.6 million people versus Atlanta’s near half a million residents, making Chicago the larger of the two metropolises, the crime rate per 100,000 people was broken down.
