America's cities are getting safer, but the suburbs — the areas long designated a safe haven from urban turmoil — are taking a turn for the worse.
Homicides in big cities dropped 16.7 percent from 2001 through 2010 but murders jumped 16.9 percent in suburbs during the same period, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing studies from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
The recent increase in suburban murders stems from domestic violence, robberies gone wrong and of course, high-profile massacres, according to the Journal.
The most recent example of a suburb rocked by violence is Newtown, Conn., which was blindsided by an elementary school shooting rampage that left 27 dead.
Suburbs of Houston, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta saw the biggest spike in violence during the nine-year period. Atlanta's suburbs alone saw violent crime rise 23 percent between 2000 and 2008, while violent crime in the city itself dropped 49 percent, according to the Journal.
The rise can be attributed to cash-strapped suburban police departments that don't have the resources to keep up, and possibly to a shift in suburban demographics.
Back in 2010 the Brookings Institution found that suburbs are more likely to be home to minorities and the poor while younger, educated whites move to the cities, The Huffington Post reported at the time.
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