An article in Yahoo Finance reports that the state with the highest crime rate is Nevada. It had the highest combined rate of six major crimes: murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, and auto theft. New Mexico and Arizona ranked 2 and 3.
At the other end of the scale, North Dakota ranked 50th. The next three low crime states, ranked 47, 48, and 49, are in upper New England: New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. I am proud to say my adoptive home state of Wyoming ranked 46th out of 50. Check out the David Ellis article (linked above) to see where your state places on the list of shame.
The four lowest crime states border Canada. On the other hand, two of the three highest crime states border Mexico. Wondering what accounts for the variation in crime rates, I ordered the rankings for the 11 states that border Canada and found their range is from 7 to 50 with an median ranking of 39. The rankings for the four states that border Mexico range from 2 to 12 with a median of 6.
Can this enormous difference be coincidence? I think not. Incidentally, the article cited does not include immigration offenses as 'major crimes.'
