LAWRENCE, KS — For the second consecutive year, New Mexico ranks as the nation’s Most Dangerous State. The announcement was made today by Morgan Quitno Press, a Lawrence, Kansas-based independent research and publishing company, which released its annual findings. At the safer end of the rankings scale, North Dakota has a lock on the title of America’s Safest State, winning the honor for the fifth consecutive year.

"New Mexico ranks consistently high in a number of crime categories,” said Scott Morgan, President of Morgan Quitno Press. “It reported high rates for four of the six categories we measured: murder rate, rape rate, aggravated assault rate and burglary rate. Meanwhile, North Dakota had the nation’s lowest aggravated assault and robbery rates and second lowest murder and burglary rates.”

The eighth annual Most Dangerous and Safest State rankings are based on six basic crime factors reported in Morgan Quitno’s annual reference book, Crime State Rankings 2001. The updated volume was published in April. Factors considered were rates per 100,000 population for murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft. States are ranked based on how they compare to the national average for each crime category. The findings are based on 1999 crime statistics, the most recent final state data available from the FBI.

Joining New Mexico at the top of the rankings list (in descending order) were Florida, Nevada, Louisiana and Alaska. On the safer end of the rankings scale immediately preceding the North Dakota were New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Wyoming.

“New Mexico was not the only state to repeat its ranking from last year,” said Morgan. Florida, Nevada and Louisiana remained in the top five as well.” Morgan added that while New Mexico clearly has some serious crime problems to solve, statistics show that the state is making progress. “New Mexico’s overall crime rate dropped 11.3% from 1998 to 1999 and its violent crime rate was down 13.2% for the same time period. These are some of the largest declines of any state.”