Alison GerberThe headlines screamed from websites and the pages of newspapers last week: “FBI: Tennessee most dangerous US state.” “TN has nation’s highest violent crime rate.” “The most dangerous U.S. state is … Tennessee?”
Those were all real headlines, based on an FBI study that found that Tennessee has the highest per capita violent crime rate of the nation’s 50 states. (Washington, D.C.’s was higher).
That means 643 people out of every 100,000 in Tennessee have been victims of violent crime, which includes murder, aggravated assault, forced rape and robbery.
Tennessee was in the top 10 for murders and was first for aggravated assaults.
Unsettling for sure.