Per capita data is what counts. CA has a huge population compared to Missouri and why they use per capita.
Example, would you rather live in a state of 40 million with 350 murders per year or a state of 7 million with 200 murders per year?
I live in Missouri. I’d rather live here than in California, where I’m originally from. But I live in neither St. Louis nor Kansas City, so I don’t get to have to deal with the high murder rate the two ‘urban’ areas have to endure.