Emails (excerpted), Mitchell Chamlin, professor, School of Criminal Justice, Texas State University, San Marcos, May 28-29, 2013

12:05 pm

May 28, 2013

...To be honest, these ranking tend to be meaningless.  There is probably more within city variation in danger/safety than between cities.  …

1:12 pm

May 28, 2013

Safety varies more by neighborhood/community than it does by city.

11:24 am

May 29, 2013

...

1)  Crime is local -  most criminals work in a very small radius (typically smaller than a city, let alone an sma).  So again, i would contend that that city-level safety comparisons are not particularly meaningful.

...

Lastly, as I said above, I strongly believe that the city is the wrong (too large) unit of analysis for safety comparisons...