East St. Louis, Illinois; Darby Borough, Pennsylvania; and Opa Locka, Florida are among the the top 10 most dangerous cities in the U.S., according to a report.

Based on average rate of violent crime per 100,000 population, The National Council for Home Safety and Security released the top 10 ranking, which is a subset of its larger report, Top 100 Most Dangerous Cities in America ranking.

The top 10 are:

1. East St. Louis, Illinois
2. Darby Borough, Pennsylvania
3. Opa Locka, Florida
4. Florida City, Florida
5. Flint, Michigan
6. Detroit, Michigan
7. Saginaw City, Michigan
8. College Park, Georgia
9. Prichard, Alabama
10. West Memphis, Arkansas

With regards to larger cities, the NCHSS report identifies the top 10 most dangerous cities with populations of more than 100,000:

1. Flint, MI
2. Detroit, MI
3. Oakland, CA
4. St. Louis, MO
5. Memphis, TN
6. Birmingham, AL
7. Little Rock, AR
8. Baltimore City, MD
9. Stockton, CA
10. Cleveland, OH

The report notes that a high population does not mean that a city will have a high violent crime rate. Many of the top 100 most dangerous cities are relatively small, with 68 of the top 100 having populations under 50,000, and 37 possessing populations under 20,000. However, the authors write, many of these smaller communities are adjacent to larger metropolitan areas, such as #2 Darby Borough, Penn. (population: 11,000), which is located five miles outside of Philadelphia, and Florida City, Fla., which lies just outside of Miami.

“Many of these smaller communities have violent crime rates similar to the most dangerous neighborhoods of the larger cities they are adjacent to, and in many cases, they border these neighborhoods. The difference is that the larger cities also have more affluent, low crime areas that lower their overall violent crime rates, while their smaller satellite cities do not,” the report says.

https://www.alarms.org/top-100-safest-cities-in-america-2017/