The rate of black homicides in Missouri is once again the highest in the country, according to a national report released Wednesday.
It’s the second time in four years that Missouri has topped the annual study of victims compiled by the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C., using FBI statistics.
This year’s study found that Missouri’s black homicide rate was 39.90 per 100,000 people in 2008, the most recent year with data available. Pennsylvania, which topped the list the last two years, was second with a rate of 31.05 per 100,000.
Missouri also topped the list in 2008, when study authors used data from 2005.
Those years coincided with years that Kansas City recorded its largest number of homicides of the decade: 126 in 2008 and 127 in 2005.
Kansas placed 14th in this year’s study with a rate of 18.61, which is near the national rate of 18.07.
By contrast, the overall homicide rate for all races and all locations is 4.93 per 100,000, according to the report.
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