As of 2016, the most violent city in the country was Oceana, West Virginia, a formerly booming coal town hit hard by the opiate epidemic, where 4,175.99 violent crimes per 100,000 residents are reported in a typical year. On a per capita basis, the place was twice as violent as Detroit, which averages “only” 1,988.63 violent crimes per 100,000 persons per year. Indeed, the entire list of the most violent (small) cities was dominated by what I would have thought of as very pleasant places—formerly bucolic white or middle-class Black towns known for things like furniture sales: Wellston,
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