Compton, California, Has Dubious Record of Fourth Most Dangerous City in America

If we may believe the figures cited as the result of the 2007 study, Compton, California ranks fourth amongst the most dangerous 25 cities in the United States. However, digging a bit deeper you will find out that among the 126 cities surveyed with population numbers ranging from 75,000 to 99,999, Compton is actually the most dangerous city! Lest you believe that this is a fluke, an aberrant measurement, and perhaps not reflective of the entirety that makes up what is known as the city of Compton, think again! As compared with last year's figures, Compton is the city with the largest decline!

The numbers were compiled by Morgan Quitno Press which has since been sold to CQ Press. As such, this formerly Kansas based research company has focused on health care and crime rankings but also releases figures with respect to educational achievements.

Compton, California is euphemistically known as the Hub, and one would think that the presence of an equestrian training facility as well as the Major League Baseball Academy would actually attract less criminal elements. Sadly, the violence and the crime have been so pervasive in Compton as to have become legendary. Consider the fact that gansta rap groups as early as 1988 sang about the violence. N.W.A. immortalized the gang fights, drug culture, and animosity against the police in the album entitled Straight Outta Compton.

Not much has changed almost 20 years later, and the gang wars and gang killings still cause Compton to top the charts with respect to being a virulently violent city where innocent bystander or not, you run the risk of becoming a casualty of the gang wars. Yet the last three years in particular have found a resurgence of gang strife, this time perpetrated by gangs of different ethnicities that are seeking to control not only the turf but also the drug traffic into surrounding neighborhoods.