Including government statistics for major crimes reported from 1977-1996, this handbook graphically portrays trends in 75 US cities which have been cited in magazine surveys as among the best places to live. Besides crime data, each metropolitan statistical areas's profile contains information on its anti-crime programs, crime risk, law enforcement, corrections, death penalty provisions and laws. With a caveat against making comparisons due to economic and other factors, cities are not ranked by their crime rates. No index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

America's Top-Rated Cities is a four-volume set, each book covering a specific region of the United States - Southern, Western, Central, and Eastern. Each volume includes statistical information and other data in one easy-to-use source on cities which have been cited in various magazine surveys as being the best places for business and living. Book jacket.

America's Top-Rated Cities provides current, comprehensive statistical information and other essential data in one easy-to-use source on the 100 "top" cities that have been cited as the best for business and living in the U. S. - providing a concise social, business, economic, demographic and environmental profile of each city. Details Cost of Living, Taxes, Education, Employers, Media, Crime, Bankruptcy and more. For city-by-city comparisons, a handy Comparative Ranking Chart lists statistics for all the cities so the user can quickly and easily see how the cities compare to one another - a huge time-saver.

Many theories--from the routine to the bizarre--have been offered up to explain the crime decline of the 1990s. Was it record levels of imprisonment? An abatement of the crack cocaine epidemic? More police using better tactics? Or even the effects of legalized abortion? And what can we expect from crime rates in the future? Franklin E. Zimring here takes on the experts, and counters with the first in-depth portrait of the decline and its true significance. The major lesson from the 1990s is that relatively superficial changes in the character of urban life can be associated with up to 75% drops in the crime rate. Crime can drop even if there is no major change in the population, the economy or the schools. Offering the most reliable data available, Zimring documents the decline as the longest and largest since World War II. It ranges across both violent and non-violent offenses, all regions, and every demographic. All Americans, whether they live in cities or suburbs, whether rich or poor, are safer today. Casting a critical and unerring eye on current explanations, this book demonstrates that both long-standing theories of crime prevention and recently generated theories fall far short of explaining the 1990s drop. A careful study of Canadian crime trends reveals that imprisonment and economic factors may not have played the role in the U.S. crime drop that many have suggested. There was no magic bullet but instead a combination of factors working in concert rather than a single cause that produced the decline. Further--and happily for future progress, it is clear that declines in the crime rate do not require fundamental social or structural changes. Smaller shifts in policy can make large differences. The significant reductions in crime rates, especially in New York, where crime dropped twice the national average, suggests that there is room for other cities to repeat this astounding success. In this definitive look at the great American crime decline, Franklin E. Zimring finds no pat answers but evidence that even lower crime rates might be in store.