Most Dangerous Neighborhoods: See Where North Center Ranks

Murders and gang activity may have graced headlines in Chicago more often in 2012, but what areas of Chicago are the most dangerous?

Patch broke down all 77 Chicago communities to see where the most and least amount of reported criminal activity happened in the last year. Everything from murders to thefts was tallied in the count, and some of the results may surprise you.

With nearly 1,850 reported crimes, the North Center community – which encompasses the Roscoe Village neighborhood – ranked as the 53rd most dangerous. That’s compared to Chicago’s largest community of Austin that had more than 21,400 crimes and took first place. 

However, when it comes to violent crimes in the last month, another story unfolds. Fuller Park on the South Side took the lead with 4.2 violent crimes for every 1,000 people living there, according to the Chicago Tribune. West Garfield Park directly next to Austin took second with 3.2 violent crimes for every 1,000 residents. In dead last is Mount Greenwood.

North Center ranks 69 in violent crime out of the 77 communities. 

Top Five Most Dangerous Chicago Communities:

1. Austin – 21,411
2. South Shore – 11,394
3. Near North Side – 11,231
4. Humboldt Park – 11,143
5. North Lawndale – 10,146

Top Five Safest Chicago Communities:

77. Edison Park – 311
76. Burnside – 520
75. Forest Glen – 540
74. Mount Greenwood – 709
73. Hegewisch - 727

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Neighboring community Lake View came in 15th with more than 7,600 incidents, Lincoln Park ranked 27 with almost 5,000 crimes and Lincoln Square ranked 47th with more than 2,300 reports.

And while North Center’s population of less than 32,000 people pales in comparison to Austin’s more than 117,000 – causing for some of the difference in crime reporting – police still admit the 19th Police District is struggling with decreasing the large amount of burglaries.

Commander Elias Voulgaris addressed the number of burglaries and robberies in the district earlier this month, citing most of them actually are a result of people forgetting to lock their doors.

“As much as we’re trying, our burglaries are steady,” Voulgaris said. “I’d say as high as 95 percent of burglaries can be prevented if we just shut our windows, shut our doors and shut our garage doors. Along with our enforcement mission, we’re going to try to get the word out on how to not be a victim of burglaries and robberies.”

This North Side district is, however, seeing a decrease in the number of robberies. 

Editor's Note: This article was updated with violent crime statistics. 

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