"Why The South Is More Violent Than The Rest Of America"

[Rstrstx]

62. Looking at the most violent data with a finer comb, and the states they're including in the south

It may sound like the south has an unusually large 40.9% rate of crime in the US but it's also the most populous region of the 4 artificially divided areas, accounting for 37.4% of the population.

What I was interested in was the most violent crime, murder/manslaughter. The FBI provides a breakdown by state as well as region, and the results are interesting. It gives the overall number plus the rates per 100,000, which is what I'll list for each region and subregion. It should be noted that they are very generous in their inclusion of the south, ranging from Delaware and DC to Texas

NATIONAL MURDER/MANSLAUGHTER RATE (per 100,000): 4.7

NORTHEAST (3.8):
New England (CT,ME,RI,MA,NH,VT) 2.4 has some of the best rates in the country, ranging from 1.1 and 1.3 in NH and VT to 4.1 in CT. This is the lowest of all of the artificially constructed subregions.
Middle Atlantic (NY,NJ,PA) 4.3 These three fare more poorly, with NY surprisingly faring the best at 3.5 while NJ and PA come in at 4.4 and 5.4 respectively.

MIDWEST (4.7):
East North Central (IL, IN, MI, OH, WI) 5.2 These states range from a low of 3.0 in WI to a high of 7.0 in MI. IL and OH come in at 5.5 and 4.3 respectively
West North Central (IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD) 3.5 This is a pretty diverse area (maybe too diverse) and it shows, with rates ranging from 1.5 and 1.8 in IA and MN to a much higher 6.5 for MO.

SOUTH (5.5):
South Atlantic (DE, DC, FL, MD, GA, NC, SC, VA, WV) 5.4 wow, what homogeneity (sarcasm)! Rates range from lows of 3.8 and 3.9 in the Virginias to a whopping 13.9 in Washington DC, with the highest state being SC at 6.9. Most states fall around the 5 to 6 range, which is relatively high. FL, the most populous state in the zone, comes in at 5.2
East South Central (AL, KY, MS, TN) 6.1 range from 4.5 and 6 in KY and TN to just above 7 in AL and MS. This is the highest of the subregions, surely due to AL and MS (at least they didn't include LA).
West South Central (AR, LA, OK, TX) 5.4 the Texas bashers on here are going to be quite disappointed to know it has the lowest in the subregion at 4.4 (lower than the national average), with the highest being LA at 10.8, the highest of any state. OK and AK come in at 5.7 and 5.9.

WEST (4.2):
Mountain (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, UT, WY) 4.2 ID and UT have New England-like lows of 1.8 while NM is the highest at 5.6 (but down impressively from 7.6 the previous year). AZ is just behind at 5.5
Pacific (CA, OR, WA, AK, HI) 4.4 HI and OR come in at 2.1 and 2.4 to CA which comes in at 5.0, higher than TX and way higher than NY. I don't know if the average includes PR, which I'll list below

Puerto Rico: This one easily takes the cake at a massive 26.7 rate (and that's down from over 30 in 2011!). Even DC can't compete with that. Very disappointing as it is one of my favorite places in the US, second only to Hawaii (and yes I consider PR part of the US, at least sort of. I love it dearly)

Overall I'm skeptical of the OP's premise, though there clearly is a violent zone in the LA-MS-AL area, with SC maybe thrown in for good measure too. But the rest of the region is not that different than many other states. The yay-hoos here in TX seem no more inclined to murder than their counterparts in OH or NV do and are in fact lower than CA or any state on the East Coast south of New York with the exception of Virginia.