LAS VEGAS -- A nonpartisan research institute that aims to measure the correlation between peace and prosperity ranked Nevada as the nation's most violent state and third least peaceful state in a report issued Tuesday.
The 2012 United States Peace Index produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace in Washington, D.C., determined that Nevada led the nation with 654 violent crimes per 100,000 residents, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report for 2010.
Metro Police has long argued that violent crime rates in Las Vegas are skewed because the per capita rankings don't take into account the flood of tourists who visit the city. Other law enforcement agencies also have warned against making too much of comparisons in the FBI report because police departments differ in the way they classify certain crimes.
Still, the violent crime rate was one of five factors the institute used when it assigned Nevada an overall index score of 3.37. Only Louisiana (4.05) and Tennessee (3.41) faired worse. Maine topped the list at 1.31, earning the institute's designation as the nation's most peaceful state.
It was also determined that Nevada had the nation's eighth highest homicide rate, 14th highest incarceration rate, eighth highest number of police employees per 100,000 residents, and 21st greatest availability of small arms. The homicide, incarceration and police employee statistics also were based on the FBI report.
In a separate ranking of 61 metropolitan areas, with top-ranked Cambridge, Mass., determined as the most peaceful, Las Vegas placed 56th. Within that ranking, Las Vegas was shown as having the second highest violent crime rate, exceeded only by Detroit.
The institute concluded that the nation is more peaceful than at any time since 1991, with the Northeast laying claim to most peaceful region in the country, But the institute also stated that if the rest of the nation was as peaceful as Maine, more than $274 billion worth of extra economic activity and 1.7 million more jobs could be generated.
Nevada's share of those savings was calculated to be more than $3.8 billion.
"What the USPI (index) shows is that over the past 20 years, America has become substantially more peaceful, witnessing a significant and sustained reduction in direct violence," institute founder and executive director Steve Killelea said. "Homicide rates in the U.S. have halved since 1991 and the violent crime rate has also fallen by nearly half during the same period.
"Given the financial costs of incarceration, emphasis needs to be placed on programs that reduce the likelihood of reoffending or finding more cost effective ways that deal with non-violent offenders. Programs dealing with education and vocational training have been proven to be effective in reducing recidivism. To highlight the size of the problem, if all the people who were incarcerated were contained in one city, it would be the fourth largest in the U.S."
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