NY among US's top 5 safest large cities

Jose Torres, a Camden resident for 35 years, sits on his cage enclosed porch in Camden, New Jersey March 25, 2005. Camden, New Jersey, was the most dangerous city in the United States for the second consecutive year, according to an annual survey released on Monday.(Reuters photo)

     BEIJING, Nov. 22 -- Camden, New Jersey, has been named the most dangerous city in the United States for the second consecutive year, according to an annual survey based on crime statistics.

    Morgan Quitno Press, a research and publishing company based in Kansas, released its annual dangerous cities list, which ranked the rates of serious crimes including murders, rapes and robberies in 369 US cities, based on 2004 statistics reported by the FBI last month.

    Camden, a city of 80,000 people near Philadelphia, took the top spot last year from Detroit, which remained No. 2 in the most dangerous city rankings.

    Listed as the most dangerous cities are: Camden, New Jersey; Detroit, Michigan; St. Louis, Missouri; Flint, Michigan; Richmond, Virginia; Baltimore, Maryland; Atlanta, Georgia; New Orleans, Louisiana; Gary, Indiana; Birmingham, Alabama.

    Camden's murder rate was more than 10 times the national average and its robbery rate was seven times the national average, the study said.

    Camden is known for a history of corrupt politicians, drug-dealing and murders, and has been among the Top 10 in the most dangerous city rankings in each of the eight years Morgan Quitno released them. By most measures, it is also among the nation's poorest.

    The safest city, also for the second year in a row, was the Boston suburb of Newton, Massachusetts, which had no murders and the lowest overall crime and motor-vehicle theft rates in the nation. 

    The safest are named as: Newton, Massachusetts; Clarkstown, New York; Amherst, New York; Mission Viejo, California; Brick Township, New Jersey; Troy, Michigan; Thousand Oaks, California; Round Rock, Texas; Lake Forest, California; Cary, North Carolina. Enditem

(Agencies)