Don't Go to Camden. Don't Go to Newton Either, Actually.

For the second year in a row, Camden, New Jersey has been named the most dangerous city in the US, and Newton, Massachusetts has been named the safest. Now, my school is located in Newton and, honestly, I'm surprised it's literally the "safest" place in the entire country, especially considering the way really rich people drive around in military assault vehicles. But apparently negligent driving and poorly planned roads and intersections don't come into play in the rankings - the criteria considered include violent crime and motor vehicle theft rates.

In Newton, the median household income was $86,052 in 2000, more than three times that of Camden's $23,421, statistics show. The median value of a Newton house was $438,400, more than 10 times that of Camden.

Camden has a 15.9 percent unemployment rate, compared with 2.9 percent in Newton. More than half of Camden's population is black and 39 percent is Hispanic, compared with 2 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively, in Newton. More than two-thirds of Newton residents have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared with 5 percent in Camden.
Camden faced both good and bad prospects after last year's ranking - the federal and state government did pledge to devote more resources to the city, and - as a result - the crime rate this year was down 18%. But the rankings also caused Camden to lose a major hotel development deal, and the Rutgers campus there has faced lower enrollment rates.

Not everyone agrees with the way the rankings are compiled by Morgan Quinto, the company that authors the study.

The method Morgan Quito uses to determine the rankings is attacked regularly by criminologists and sociologists, who criticize the company for not placing the data in context.

John Allen Paulos, author of Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences and a professor of mathematics at Temple, labeled the company's methodology "incomprehensible."

It "calls for a new category of crime: statisticide," Paulos said. "I think they should be sentenced to a course in probability and statistics."

Under its methodology, Morgan Quitno gives equal weight to six basic crime categories reported by the FBI: homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor-vehicle theft.

One city activist said that regardless of the publisher's methods, he was thankful that the ranking had brought resources to the beleaguered city.

"Being focused on the exact methodology obscures the fundamental problems going on in Camden," Jeff Brenner said. "It's a very dangerous city with enormous public safety problems, and we have a long way to go to make it a safe place for families, children and businesses to thrive.

"The only way we'll make change in Camden is by bringing a spotlight to the problem."

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