# The Crime rate challenge: Beat my hometown of Harvey, IL **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 8, 2010, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913 "2010-11-08T16:06:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/1 "2010-11-08T16:06:20Z")
Inspired by the [Most interesting thing about your hometown](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=584565) thread. For me, that is how crime ridden my home town is of Harvey, IL is. But I didn’t know it was [THIS](http://www.clrsearch.com/Harvey_Demographics/IL/Crime_Statistics) bad. Is there a worse place you know of? You can plug a city and state or zip code into the field at the top of the chart and compare it to Harvey. ---
**Author:** ![KennerTheGreat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a8b319/32.png) [@KennerTheGreat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KennerTheGreat)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/2 "2010-11-08T16:19:38Z")
The 48226 area of Detroit has Harvey beat hands down when it comes to murder, and a very slight edge with regards to personal crime and burglary. Harvey wins (loses?) everywhere else though. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/3 "2010-11-08T16:37:08Z")
I thought my home town of Logansport, LA would be high on some measures but it came in below the national average on most everything. I also looked up my current home in the Medway/Holliston, MA area and they won’t be making a remake of Boys in the Hood there anytime soon. All the crime measures risk measures are nearly off-scale low with a total risk of 3 which is over 100 times lower than poor Harvey, IL. I don’t know how you avoided getting seriously killed there every day. I think we need someone from East St. Louis, IL to show up to snatch the title away from you. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/4 "2010-11-08T16:48:36Z")
Columbia, SC beats the PANTS off Harvey in larceny. (Well, _steals_ the pants off, I guess.) We edge you out in assault risk and burglary risk too, but you best hide you stuff. ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/5 "2010-11-08T16:58:53Z")
Birmingham, AL runs neck and neck with your hometown. When you move to the outer burb I’m moving to though, the risk drops almost comically. Thank goodness for me! ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/6 "2010-11-08T18:09:43Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > …I don’t know how you avoided getting seriously killed there every day. I think we need someone from East St. Louis, IL to show up to snatch the title away from you. I’m pretty it’s worse now than when I was growing up, but it was bad back then too. It was a heavy industry blue collar town, and most of the factories closed down over the last 20 years. And I see you are right about East Saint Louis. It beats Harvey in 6 out of the nine stats. Now I wonder if Illinois has the most crime ridden cities. > [@ShelliBean](#): > > Birmingham, AL runs neck and neck with your hometown. When you move to the outer burb I’m moving to though, the risk drops almost comically. Thank goodness for me! Very close. It beats Harvey in 4 out of 9 stats. If I was awarding an extra point for murder, it would be a tie. Also interesting the Harvey is a burb of Chicago, so in that direction at least, the risk goes up as you move away from the city. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/7 "2010-11-08T18:23:24Z")
I sometimes wonder if it is even worse than the stats. My dad lived there until he died, and he would tell some scary stories. He personally found a body in the alley next to his house (looked like he’d been shot or stabbed) and called 911, an ambulance came along and scooped up the body, but as far as he knew, the police never even made an appearance. Certainly they never knocked on his door or called him to ask any questions. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/8 "2010-11-08T18:32:43Z")
[East St. Louis, IL](http://www.clrsearch.com/Harvey_Demographics/IL/Crime_Statistics?compare=East+St.+Louis%2C+IL) beats Harvey in 6 of the 9 categories, so Harvey isn’t even the worst for crime in the state of Illinois. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/9 "2010-11-08T19:17:07Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Columbia, SC beats the PANTS off Harvey in larceny. (Well, _steals_ the pants off, I guess.) We edge you out in assault risk and burglary risk too, but you best hide you stuff. How’d they do with rapes? 'Cause then you best hide your wife, hide your kids, hide errrrbody! The risk in my hometown is 1/20 (or less) than Harvey in every catergory. ---
**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/10 "2010-11-08T19:21:03Z")
Don’t know if this is still in effect, but some years ago ESL passed an ordinance that, after dark, if you come up to a stop light that is red, it is just necessary to stop and check for oncoming traffic before priceeding thru the intersection. It wasn’t necessary to wait for the light to turn green before proceeding. This was to try to reduce the carjacking numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/11 "2010-11-08T19:22:58Z")
Harvey mops the floor with Columbia for rape. Harvey has so many rapes it probably has a special department of jizz moppers. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/12 "2010-11-08T19:36:29Z")
I was just inspired to look up a close neighbor of Harvey – Gary, Indiana. It turns out [Gary edges out Harvey](http://www.clrsearch.com/Harvey_Demographics/IL/Crime_Statistics?compare=gary%2C+in) as well, and big time in murder. Last week I drove west on I-80/90 West through Indiana, and at the highway split of I-80 and I-90, the ramp to I-80 was closed, so everyone was forced to continue on I-90. There were no detour signs of any kind to help get back to 80. So if you simply exited at any of the next few ramps, you had to find your way back to I-80 via the streets of Gary. Yeek! ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/13 "2010-11-08T21:45:06Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Harvey mops the floor with Columbia for rape. Harvey has so many rapes it probably has a special department of jizz moppers. No it don’t - we done stole 'em. ---
**Author:** ![Chicagojeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@Chicagojeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicagojeff)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/14 "2010-11-08T21:59:43Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Inspired by the [Most interesting thing about your hometown](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=584565) thread. For me, that is how crime ridden my home town is of Harvey, IL is. But I didn’t know it was [THIS](http://www.clrsearch.com/Harvey_Demographics/IL/Crime_Statistics) bad. > > Is there a worse place you know of? You can plug a city and state or zip code into the field at the top of the chart and compare it to Harvey. Quite a bit of the problem in Harvey as well as say Oak park or COuntry Club is that CHA closed down. I was an officer with the Chicago Housing Authority and effectively when they ended our dept. and closed down the CHA they gave out vouchers and a lot of the residents moved to the outskirts of the city due to the cost of rent in Chicago.. Quite a shame a while ago Harvey was a nice escape burb.. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/15 "2010-11-08T22:03:06Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I was just inspired to look up a close neighbor of Harvey – Gary, Indiana. It turns out [Gary edges out Harvey](http://www.clrsearch.com/Harvey_Demographics/IL/Crime_Statistics?compare=gary%2C+in) as well, and big time in murder. Gary, Indiana was the very first place I thought of when I read your OP. ETA: [New Orleans](http://www.clrsearch.com/Harvey_Demographics/IL/Crime_Statistics?compare=New+Orleans+Louisiana) also. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/16 "2010-11-08T22:07:43Z")
> [@Chicagojeff](#): > > Quite a bit of the problem in Harvey as well as say Oak park or COuntry Club is that CHA closed down. I was an officer with the Chicago Housing Authority and effectively when they ended our dept. and closed down the CHA they gave out vouchers and a lot of the residents moved to the outskirts of the city due to the cost of rent in Chicago.. Quite a shame a while ago Harvey was a nice escape burb.. I grew up in Harvey through the 60’s, and even then it was a place to escape from, not a place to escape to. It always had gangs and quite a bit of street crime. My sister was raped, my mom was robbed at gunpoint… ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/17 "2010-11-08T22:14:56Z")
[My little Tennessee town](http://www.clrsearch.com/Harvey_Demographics/IL/Crime_Statistics?compare=37149). See why I don’t lock my doors? [The big college town 10 miles away.](http://www.clrsearch.com/Harvey_Demographics/IL/Crime_Statistics?compare=37130) Still very safe. StG ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Onimous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@Ann\_Onimous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Onimous)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/18 "2010-11-08T22:27:50Z")
Jackson, MS beats Harvey in all but three categories - personal crime, assault, and motor vehicle theft - and the motor vehicle theft ranking is really close. I live in a suburb just outside of Jackson, and we’re still doing really well. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/19 "2010-11-08T22:32:15Z")
Minneapolis 55407 beats it in Robbery, Burglary and Larceny. Thieving bastards. 55408 (Encompassing Uptown) has it beat for Rape, Robbery, Burglary and Larceny. Seems like much of Minneapolis has it beat for Rape, Robbery and Larceny. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913/20 "2010-11-09T00:24:30Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Minneapolis 55407 beats it in Robbery, Burglary and Larceny. Thieving bastards. > 55408 (Encompassing Uptown) has it beat for Rape, Robbery, Burglary and Larceny. > > Seems like much of Minneapolis has it beat for Rape, Robbery and Larceny. You want to trade some pillagers for murderers? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-crime-rate-challenge-beat-my-hometown-of-harvey-il/559913.md?page=2)