(PatriotWise.com) — Several border communities experienced a slight drop in homicide rates in 2022 compared to 2021, placing them below the national average, Axios reported.
Axios analyzed crime data from the FBI that showed, on average, eight border cities in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California had a lower murder rate than the national average.
The cities analyzed were Brownsville, Eagle Pass, El Paso, Laredo, and McAllen, Texas, along with Yuma, Arizona, Sunland Park, New Mexico, and San Diego, California.
The average rate of homicide among the eight cities last year was 4.2 per 100,000 residents, while the national average in 2022 was 6.3 per 100,000 residents. This reflected a 0.5-point drop from 2021, when the eight cities had an average homicide rate of 4.7 per 100,000 residents.
According to Axios’ analysis, the average of the eight cities was lower due to Eagle Pass, which had no homicides recorded for 2022.
Yuma, on the other hand, showed the highest homicide rate of the 8 cities, with 19.3 per 100,000 residents. Arizona also continues to have the highest rate of violent crime among all border cities, at 559.2 per 100,000 residents.
Additionally, while homicide rates on average fell, the eight cities analyzed saw a 10% increase in overall violent crime from 2021 to 2022. In terms of overall violent crime, the eight cities exceeded the national average in 2022 for the first time in years.
In El Paso, the homicide rate for 2022 was only 3.2 per 100,000, while the overall violent crime rate was 313.4 per 100,000 residents
What is unclear is why the eight border cities had a lower homicide rate than the national average.
Some experts suggest that the cities’ high immigrant population may be the reason, as research has shown that immigrant communities tend to have lower rates of crime.
At the same time, some law enforcement experts say the lower homicide rate could simply be the result of the increased presence of law enforcement since, in addition to local police, border cities also have federal drug enforcement agents and agents from Border Patrol.
Copyright 2023, PatriotWise.com
