St. Louis, Missouri is a city notorious for its extraordinarily high crime and homicide rate, and it is recognized as the most dangerous city in the United States (CBS News). With 134 homicides so far this year, St. Louis doesn’t seem to be getting any safer. 

The reason why St. Louis so dangerous is because of its location. The city sits right in the middle of a major drug-trafficking route, plaguing the city with sky-rocketing crime rates. And though the crime-rate of 2019 is going through the roof, 2017 was the worst year of all. There were a shocking 205 homicides and the violent crime rate was 2,082 per 100,000 residents. At the rate that St. Louis is moving, they might come close to 2017’s statistics again this year. 

“At least a dozen children 16 years old or younger have been fatally shot since April,” says an SLMPD police officer. 

These brutal homicides were mostly derived from unknown causes, according to the 2019 UCR Homicide  It also includes that the other highest causes of homicides were from heated arguments, robbery, drugs, and even jealousy. On August 28 of this year, the New York Times published that $100,000 were offered to help solve three child killings. More and more cases are now involving monetary rewards because of these uncontrollable and devastating massacres. 

Not only would St. Louis being safer be better for the citizens, but also for the economy, with a higher likelihood of tourism. Hopefully, St. Louis will find a way to decrease its high crime rate and give its citizens peace.