Louisiana moves from 10th to 2nd-most dangerous state

• By STEVEN WARD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Mar 19, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Louisiana was the second -most dangerous state in the nation in 2006, according to a CQ Press crime rankings report issued Tuesday.

Louisiana jumped from the 10th-most dangerous state in 2005 to the second-most dangerous in 2006, the report shows.

Nevada ranked the most dangerous in 2006; New Hampshire ranked the safest.

The numbers come from a ranking conducted by CQ Press, a division of Congressional Quarterly Inc., and published annually as “Crime State Rankings and the Safest and Most Dangerous State Awards.”

Troy Blanchard, an LSU sociology professor and criminologist, said Tuesday there needs to be an asterisk next to Louisiana because of the state’s unusual circumstances in 2006.

“What was going on in 2006? We were rapidly losing and gaining population in the state’s two biggest cities after the hurricanes in 2005, so the population was in upheaval and turmoil,” Blanchard said.

“What we had in 2005 was a worst possible scenario with the worst catastrophe that ever occurred in the country. What we have here is snapshot at the worst possible time,” he said.

Col. Mike Edmonson, superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, said he has a hard time believing Louisiana is the second most dangerous state in the country.

“It sounds very subjective,” Edmonson said Tuesday.

“I’m very surprised and don’t see it myself. I’m kind of perplexed by the ranking and think it’s an injustice to the men and women of the state,” he said.

Barry Erwin, president and chief executive officer of Council For a Better Louisiana, a nonprofit public interest group, said Louisiana’s jump from 10th to second must have been due to two things: “One, we did have an increase in crime in Louisiana during that time. Second, we had a loss of population after the hurricanes and that affects the crime rates. Crime can go up when population is down.”

According to FBI statistics, Erwin said, there were about 3,000 more violent crimes in the state in 2006 than in 2005.

Nevertheless, he said, there are other questions to consider about the CQ Press numbers.