Why is it that the murder rate is significantly higher in red states as compared to blue states?

[Anonymous]

Updates

8 mo

If you lie on this question like "the murder rate is highest in liberal states," I am going to delete what you wrote, unless you have some real data to support what you said.

Just because Trump openly lies and people don't call him on it does not mean you can do it here.

[OneViewpoint]

Why is the murder rate higher in Red States? Widespread poverty, plentiful guns, out of control illegal drugs, shit education systems, shit jobs, backward religion, political corruption, and hopelessness. Life is cheap in Red States. It always has been.

[slatyb]

Because conservatives are more violent, and there are more guns. All the interpersonal violence at protests comes from reactionary (right wing) groups.

[mysteriousNicholas]

I imagine red states are more pro second amendment aka Republican traditionalists - that's all I can guess. I hear California has the strictest laws in the USA when it comes to the second amendment from only googling but again I'm a foreigner so I know jack all, but have a Good day

[mysteriousNicholas]

I guess each American state has its own voter majorities, shrug

[mysteriousNicholas]

You know, red ♥️ blue 💙 etc

[WindAtMyBack]

You need to look more closely at who and where the most murders are. Look at the city level, not the state level. Most murders are in the cities, which happen to be mostly Democrat strongholds. Out in the suburbs, which are more Republican, murder rates are far lower.

This is why I keep saying that people really need to stop talking about red and blue states, as if it has meaning. They are all purple states. You need to break it down more than that.

On top of that, states are "red" or "blue" in a presidential election. Then the opposite color in the next election. Many have governors the opposite party as the presidential election. And both federal and state representatives and senators are often different than the governor and president.

ALL states are mixed, some more than others. But oversimplifying it as red and blue states is meaningless. Does 51% to 49% make them a red or blue state? Do you really want to draw any conclusions from that?

Look at the cities. Better yet, look at the precinct level if the data is available.

[Asker]

Most people are also in the cities. It makes sense that the larger the population, the higher the murder rate is long. If you don't do it per capita basis, which of course you wouldn't do because that would completely demolish your working hypotheses. Did you think we weren't going to notice this?

[WindAtMyBack]

By cities I mean urban areas, as opposed to suburbs.

"If you don't do it per capita basis"
That changes nothing about what I said.

[Asker]

try that and see.

[WindAtMyBack]

I don't need to try anything. I already know because I've been pouring through murder and other crime statistics for many years.

But you shouldn't need statistics to know that murder is mainly an urban thing. You never watched the local news? Where are most of the murders? In the urban core city or in the suburbs?

But really, that all misses the point. Stop thinking in terms of red and blue states. It's meaningless because they are all purple. You can't draw any conclusions about ANYTHING without more info.

[Asker]

Well, I will just defer to your advance knowledge about crime statistics. Apparently. That still does not exactly explain the differential rates between states. Maybe you can help us all to understand that?

[Amy10223]

I'm not sure if this is true--but my belief is that gun laws there might be more lenient than in other states. I am not totally sure how gun laws work-- I just know that the NRA is given a lot of money by the Republicans who support it.

It's a sad fact that the US is one of the highest countries in statistics for highest mortality rates due to gun violence. And the highest in most countries that have school shootings. I have a friend who is afraid to come here from another country. And I'm sure he is not the only one who is afraid to come to the US--many other countries are the same.

[MannMitAntworten]

Did you ever dive deeper and see where a large majority of those homicides were taking place in those red stares? This has been covered plenty … in blue controlled parts of red states is chiefly where homicides are occurring. Just because a state is red, doesn’t mean every district/county/city is equally red. Same goes for blue states. California is a perfect example. If you look at the voting map of California, the entire state is nearly red … coastal areas being the exception and the one exception there is Orange County being the only county to swing red. Los Angeles County isn’t known for a low homicide rate. Then take San Bernardino County that is largely red, yet the City of San Bernardino, a blue city, has one of the highest homicide rates in the country. Dig deeper….

[Asker]

Of course, what you failed to mention here is that in the red parts of the state there are very few people and in the blue parts of the states which indeed are on the coasts there are the majority of people. It would make sense that there might be a few more murders in a lot. Larger population than there would be in a smaller one, but you conveniently ignored this too. Sometimes I wonder if people on this site actually think that the rest of us are going to ignore logical errors like this and let you get away with your lies. We won't.

[Syntosi]

The biggest contributing factors to crime is peoples personal economy. In other words, red states are poor and people are more desperate which can motivate more and more people to go outside the boundaries of the law.

[Agape93]

Because those states are often poor. Poor places have higher crimes.

[Asker]

Why do you think that poor places have higher crime rates? I mean - you are correct - but what is your thought as to why?

[Agape93]

Republican politics rely on cutting taxes. While it's nice to have more money, it means necessary services tend to not be well funded, so you get less social welfare if you need it which makes it more expensive to get by. It also means infrastructure is weaker, so you likely have to pay more for what you get. Lastly, companies base their wages on skill, education and cost of living in the state. So since they tend to have less educated populations and less higher skill sets, and the cost is lower, they pay less. Like for example my state maine (1.3 million people) minimum wage is $14.65 with an average wage being $26.88, because it's more expensive and the state spends more on itself and the people. But if you look at Oklahoma (4 million people), the minimum wage is only $7.25 and the high average is around $24, because despite having millions more people, the state doesn't spend much on itself or its people.

[Agape93]

So because the people lack money, and thus the ability to get more education or attend schools for trades as easily, they're stuck making less while costs go up. That naturally makes things tense for them, incentivizing making money however they can. Dealing drugs, robberies, joining gangs, prostitution etc. Which naturally leads to more killings.

[Asker]

Nice analysis! How does this increase the crime rate, and why?

[Agape93]

I just said.

[Asker]

Makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Shhhh. They like to just point at big cities and say their crime is out of control, when violent crimes per capita, a much more relevant statistic, shows red states are much worse.

[genericname85]

true but interestingly, the Highest Homicide rates 2024/25 have been recorded in Blue governed cities within red governed states.

[genericname85]

also you gotta consider that red states tend to be more poor poor states tend to have more violence. and be less educated and people with lower economic status will more likely vote red. so if you really dig a bit, you'll find the reason for all that isn't the political affiliation but the low socio-economic status of people relatively speaking.

[Ariesman81]

RACIST! FASCIST! IT'S SYSTEMIC!

Did I get it right?

[beefcakebradybatson]

Poorer folk, rampant guns.

[Asker]

Poor angry folk with guns

[beefcakebradybatson]

BRAINLESS,(often) fugly, racist poorer white folk with zero life prospects who view mass murder as their sole shot at a fame they may not live to experience if they or a cop shoots them.

[DrPepper12]

Guns, drugs, poverty, despair

[RedInnocent69]

Social determinants oh health, and everything else