What are the top 5 states with the highest crime rates in 2024 and their corresponding party affiliations?

Checked on September 28, 2025
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1. Summary of the results

The question asked for the “top 5 states with the highest crime rates in 2024 and their corresponding party affiliations,” but the documents provided do not supply a clear, consistent list of the top five states by statewide crime rate for 2024. Instead, available materials identify high-crime cities and metropolitan areas: Security.org’s compilation lists the cities with the highest total crime rates as Memphis (TN), Portland (OR), Detroit (MI), Seattle (WA), and Baltimore (MD) [1]. The FBI’s 2024 reporting highlights a national picture—a 4.5% decline in violent crime from 2023—but does not deliver a ranked top-five list of states [2]. Other analyses mention that many of the nation’s most dangerous metropolitan areas are located in states that voted for Donald Trump in 2024, but again that source addresses metropolitan-area patterns rather than a definitive state ranking [3]. In short, the direct answer requested (top 5 states by 2024 crime rate with party labels) is not present in these sources [1] [2] [3].

The available pieces permit only partial inferences: city- and metro-level high crime concentrations are documented (Memphis and several Louisiana metros among them), and a partisan geographic overlap is noted by one commentator who finds 40 of the 50 most dangerous metropolitan areas in states Trump carried in 2024 [3]. Another commentary stresses high crime in specific cities commonly located in states often described as Republican-led in recent cycles [4]. However, none of the materials provide a reliable statewide ranked list for 2024 nor an authoritative mapping of those states’ current party control or how that control is defined (governorship, state legislature, or presidential vote) [1] [4] [3] [2]. Therefore, any definitive state-level “top five” plus party labels would require additional, state-level crime-rate data and a clear rule for assigning party affiliation.

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

A major omission in the presented materials is the distinction between city/metropolitan crime rates and statewide crime rates: metropolitan hot spots can drive perceptions but do not necessarily make their entire state a “high-crime” state. The Security.org list centers on city totals per 100,000 residents [1], while the FBI overview speaks to nationwide trends and methodology [2]. Without explicit statewide denominators and standardized measures (violent crime vs total crime vs homicide rates), comparisons across states are incomplete. Additionally, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) framework and data submission processes can produce lags and coverage differences across jurisdictions, which complicates direct state-to-state ranking without careful normalization and source-by-source reconciliation [2]. Thus, a different analytic choice (e.g., using homicide rates vs total index crimes) would yield different “top five” results [1] [2].

Another omitted perspective is the nuance of “party affiliation.” The sources conflate different political measures: one notes that many dangerous metros are in states Trump won in 2024 (a presidential-vote framing) rather than stating those states’ current party control of legislatures or governors’ offices [3]. Political scientists and journalists often caution that linking crime rates to a single partisan label oversimplifies causes—factors like urbanization, poverty, policing practices, and local governance matter and vary inside states. The supplied analyses do not parse these variables or show causal evidence tying state partisan control to 2024 crime outcomes [4] [3] [2].

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

Framing the question as “top 5 states with highest crime rates in 2024 and their party affiliations” invites a partisan interpretation that can be exploited politically. One commentary explicitly frames crime as concentrated in “Republican states” (the headline tone in [4]

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