Just out of curiosity I took a look at today’s local news for an idea of how my county is doing and found a front page story that says crime was down 13% last year. However the lead story today was about a man who stabbed a woman and barricaded himself in a home. (Down in the hood)
http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2011/09/crime_reported_to_sheriffs_off.html
Jackson didn’t seem that bad outside of one area by Francis St. A little run down, but nothing that would faze me. That’s by Michigan city standards, though. Not all that high.