Illinois has a lot of different kinds of people living in it and a lot of history. But the state also has a darker side: some places have alarmingly high rates of violent crime, especially murder. You might be shocked that Illinois has been named the murder capital for 2023.
Setting up the Murder Capital
We used information from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program for the year 2022 to find the murder capital of Illinois. Two main things we looked at were the total number of murders and the murder rate per 100,000 people in every place with a population of 10,000 or more. After that, we put the cities in order from best to worst based on these factors.
East St. Louis is the Chicagoland murder capital.
East St. Louis had the highest murder rate and the second-highest number of killings out of all the cities in Illinois. East St. Louis is right across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri. It has 26,277 people living there, and 50 killings were reported there in 2022. This means that 190.3 murders happen for every 100,000 people, which is over six times the national average (29.4 murders per 100,000 people).
For many years, East St. Louis has had to deal with long-lasting problems like poverty, unemployment, crime, and corruption. Several news sites have called it “the most dangerous city in America,” which is a bad name. There are also problems in the city, like race discrimination, pollution, and not enough public services.
Maywood came in second.
There have been five killings in Maywood, Illinois, making it the fifth most murderous city in the state. This city is in Cook County, close to Chicago. It has 23,055 people living in it, and 16 killings were reported there in 2022. More than twice as many murders happen here as in the whole country (69.4 per 100,000 people).
Maywood has a high rate of poverty, a low median income, and few people with college degrees, so it is no stranger to social and economic issues. It has had to deal with problems like gang violence, drug trafficking, and bad behavior by cops.
Chicago has the most murders.
Chicago has the most killings and the seventh-highest murder rate in Illinois. There were 771 killings in this huge, crowded city in the state in 2022. It is home to 2,693,598 people. This means that 28.6 murders happen for every 100,000 people, which is just a little below the national average.
Chicago is known around the world for its cultural, economic, and political importance. However, it also has a bad image for being a violent city, with lots of gun violence, gang fights, and organized crime. It’s crazy that Chicago has had more killings than any other city in the country for 11 years in a row.
Conclusion
For 2023, East St. Louis is the scary murder city of Illinois. Maywood and Chicago come in second and third, respectively. The high murder rates in these places show how badly their social and economic problems are getting worse. More resources and help are needed in these areas to deal with the problems that lead to violence and make life better for the people who live there.