When people are looking to move, they always want to make sure that the place they are moving to is safe. Figuring out if a particular city is safe or not requires a lot of work, more than the average individual can do on their own, and that’s just for one city. If a person wants to compare the safety of multiple cities, they need to look at a professionally done study.
How the List Was Created
There are several different ways that cities can be ranked in safety. Each study conducts itself a little differently than others. However, they all typically have a few similarities. Every study will examine the violent and property crime statistics for each city. What differs is how much they weigh those crimes when calculating the city’s safety.
SafeWise created its list by referencing The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. UCR is a national program in which cities all over the country report their crime statistics. This gives SafeWise numbers to work with from 2017, which are the most recent numbers to date.
To prevent smaller, outlying cities that can have drastically different crime statistics from skewing the data, SafeWise only looked at cities whose populations were over the state median. Basically, they only looked at cities that would be classified as medium or larger within the state.
When ranking the cities, SafeWise chose to prioritize violent crime rates over property crime rates. This is because violent crimes can cause physical harm to people, and are therefore typically more concerning than property crimes, which only damage property. While both types of crimes are upsetting, violent crimes are obviously worse than property crimes.
The study compared the violent crime rates per 1,000 people. If there was a tie between two cities with violent crimes, then they ranked the cities by their reported property crimes.
The Top Safest Cities
The top 20 safest cities in California according to SafeWise’s research are as follows:
- Danville
- Rancho Santa Margarita
- Moorpark
- Rancho Palos Verdes
- Aliso Viejo
- Lake Forest
- Yorba Linda
- Laguna Niguel
- Mission Viejo
- Lincoln
- Thousand Oaks
- Poway
- Simi Valley
- Santa Clarita
- Camarillo
- Chino Hills
- Encinitas
- San Juan Capistrano
- Irvine
- Murrieta
Find a Safe Place to Call Home
While this list isn’t the only one of its kind, it is one that allows a person to make a more informed decision while looking for a new home. That is all anyone wants. If a person wants to make a truly informed decisions, a person should look at multiple lists to get as much information as they can.
By doing this, a person should be able to make a good choice and find a place to live where they can feel safe.