Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Anneliese Mahoney, Sean Simon, Alex Simone, Inez Nicholson, Ashlee Smith, Sam Reilly, Julia Bryant.

Click here for detailed ranking information for each of the Top 10 Law Schools for Labor Law.

Click here to see all the 2016 specialty rankings.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Labor Law: #2 Harvard Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Anneliese Mahoney, Sean Simon, Alex Simone, Inez Nicholson, Ashlee Smith, Sam Reilly, Julia Bryant.

Click here for detailed ranking information for each of the Top 10 Law Schools for Labor Law.

Click here to see all the 2016 specialty rankings.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Labor Law: #3 University of Chicago Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Anneliese Mahoney, Julia Bryant, Sean Simon, Alex Simone, Inez Nicholson, Ashlee Smith, Sam Reilly.

Click here to see the all of Law Street’s 2016 Law School Specialty Rankings

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top Schools for Labor Law Programs 2016 appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Anneliese Mahoney, Julia Bryant, Sean Simon, Alex Simone, Inez Nicholson, Ashlee Smith, Sam Reilly.

Click here for detailed ranking information for each of the Top 10 Law Schools for Real Estate Law.

Click here to see all the 2016 specialty rankings.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Real Estate Law: #3 Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Anneliese Mahoney, Julia Bryant, Sean Simon, Alex Simone, Inez Nicholson, Ashlee Smith, Sam Reilly.

Click here for detailed ranking information for each of the Top 10 Law Schools for Immigration Law.

Click here to see all the 2016 specialty rankings.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Real Estate Law: #6 University of Wisconsin Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Much of the discussion surrounding the size of the U.S. prison population fails to take into account the role of crime rates. Research has found that certain policies lead to harsher punishments for crimes and that these policies can vary between states. A key example is the use of strict sentencing laws and prosecutors’ growing tendency to seek felony charges for crimes, both of which have been used to explain the massive growth in the number of American prisoners over the past several decades.

Underlying all of this is the idea that certain policies are responsible for high rates of imprisonment, meaning that some states are more punitive than others. But we haven’t been able to measure how exactly this varies between states and what is responsible for the change. A new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts attempts to solve this dilemma. Researchers at Pew created a new calculation called the punishment rate, which looks at the connection between crime rates and incarceration levels to determine which states tend to punish criminals more than others based on the frequency and severity of crime.

Read More: The Punishment Rate: A New Way to Look at the U.S. Prison System

The Pew Charitable Trusts study ranks states based on their punishment rates to see which are the most punitive. The researchers found that as incarceration rates rose dramatically between 1983 and 2013, so too did punishment rates but that increase varied widely among  states.

The map below shows the Pew Charitable Trusts’ calculations for the change in punishment rates between 1983 and 2013. Darker red colors indicate a greater positive change.

If reading on mobile, use landscape view for best results or open the map in a new tab.

As the map indicates, Colorado experienced the largest change in its punishment rate between 1983 and 2013, going up 417 percent over the 30-year period. While all states saw their punishment rates increase over this period the increases were more modest in some–in states like North and South Carolina the punishment rate went up by less than 20 percent.

It’s important to note that the punishment rate measure does have its drawbacks, most notably the fact that it can’t account for drug-related imprisonment in its crime rate weighting–meaning that states with strict drug laws but low levels of other crimes are rated as more punitive because such crimes aren’t accounted for in the crime rate statistics. This is because the FBI data used to measure crime rates does not track every crime that can be punished with jail time. The researchers acknowledge this but argue that the measurement still provides insight into the larger trends at play and will hopefully prompt states to take a closer at whether their policies lead to excessive punishment for certain crimes.

While the map above highlights the states that saw the largest changes in their punishment rates, it’s also interesting to look at where each state currently stands. Pew Charitable Trusts ranks each state based on its punishment rate in 2013, the most recent year with the necessary data available. See the chart below for the full rankings by state.

If on reading mobile, use landscape view for best results.

When it comes to the rankings, most states with high punishment rates also have high incarceration rates, meaning that the imprisonment rate is often a good way to determine how punitive many states are. However, the researchers did find several outliers. In their report, the researchers find 17 states whose punishment rate ranking differs from their incarceration rate ranking by more than 10 spots, illustrating a punishment mismatch. They conclude:

Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming each ranked much higher in their punishment rates than in their imprisonment rates. In other words, these states punished crime significantly more than their imprisonment rates show. The opposite was true for Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Nevada, and New Mexico.

These findings show that simply looking at the incarceration rates does not provide the full picture when it comes to how punitive a state is. A state may have a high rate of incarceration, but that might also be related to relatively high levels of serious crime. Looking at punishment rates help us understand which states have policies that tend to be more punitive, and hopefully, this will lead policymakers to determine whether such punishments are truly appropriate.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Which States are the Most Punitive When it Comes to Crime? appeared first on Law Street.

Most people know that the prison population in the United States has grown dramatically over the past several decades. While it’s true that the number of people in U.S. prisons has grown significantly, we don’t have a concrete understanding of how that growth compares to changes in crime rates–are more people sent to prison because there was more crime or did we start punishing crime more? The Pew Charitable Trusts attempts to fill that gap with its punishment rate calculation, which provides some interesting details about how punishment varies over time and between states.

According to the Public Safety Performance Project at the Pew Charitable Trusts, the imprisonment rate increased by 149 percent between 1983 and 2013 while the punishment rate increased by 165 percent for the United States as a whole. In its research, Pew noticed that all states became more punitive from 1983 to 2013, but the changes varied widely among states.

With its new punishment rate measurement, Pew sought to look at the prison population relative to both the frequency and severity of crime in each state. Doing so helps provide a better understanding of how the incarceration rate changed relative to the prevalence of serious crime. Looking at imprisonment rates in the context of crime rates also helps illustrate differences in how states punish crime and whether certain states are more punitive than others.

Based on the report’s findings, Mississippi’s punishment rate of 818  in 2013 was the highest among all of the states and significantly greater than the national average, which was 477 that year. On the other side of the spectrum is Maine, which had a punishment rate of just 231. In the 30-year period that the researchers analyzed, Colorado experienced the largest increase in its punishment rate, going up 417 percent between 1983 and 2013.

For a full breakdown of the report’s findings and a look at each state’s ranking, you can read more here.

The researchers looked at instances of violent crime using data from the FBI’s uniform crime reporting program for all seven Part I offenses–murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. They then weighed each crime according to its severity, which was determined by the average length of a prison sentence for each crime.

In the end, the authors were able to determine which states were the most punitive based on how many people they imprisoned in relation to the frequency and severity of crime. A state with a relatively low rate of serious crime but a high prison population would have a high punishment rate, indicating that it is more punitive than other states.

While the Pew Charitable Trusts report provides some much-needed context to discussions of the U.S. prison system, it’s important to note that the measure is still far from perfect. In his thoughtful critique of Pew’s research, Tom Meagher at the Marshall Project notes that the punishment rate metric uses the best available information, but its limitations highlight the inherent challenges in measuring the criminal justice system.

Arguably the most significant gap in the measurement is the difficulty that the model has taking drug offenses into account. Drug crimes have been one of the largest contributors to the growth in the prison population, but because they are not tracked by the FBI’s uniform crime reporting system the weighting model cannot take them into account.

In the brief on the punishment rate, the researchers address the issue of drug crime and other offenses not tracked by the FBI, noting:

Although the imprisonment rate counts drug offenders—who make up nearly a fifth of the state prison population—drug crimes are not counted among the FBI’s Part I offenses, so the severity-weighted crime rate does not include them.

Pew acknowledges these drawbacks but argues that the punishment rate can still provide important context when looking at the criminal justice system. While there are imperfections in the data and limitations in terms of what the measurement can tell us, looking at punishment rates and how they vary across states can help understand the way in which prisons are utilized in the criminal justice system.

The report also doesn’t get into why exactly both incarceration and punishment rates increased over the 30-year period, but it does point to existing research that explains, at least in part, the trend. The authors note that changes in policies, rather than crime rates, largely explain the imprisonment growth. Ultimately they conclude, “States that imprison a large share of their residents, for example, can have a high crime rate or a low one; the same is true for states that lock up a small proportion of their populations.” While the report may not tell people which policies are responsible for potentially unnecessary levels of punishment, it may prompt states to start looking at the effects of their criminal justice decisions.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post The Punishment Rate: A New Way to Look at the U.S. Prison System appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Hyunjae Ham, Symon Rowlands and Toni Keddell.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2015.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Schools for J.D./M.B.A. Programs: #4 University of Pennsylvania Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Hyunjae Ham, Symon Rowlands and Toni Keddell.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2015.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Schools for J.D./M.B.A. Programs: #3 Cornell Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Hyunjae Ham, Symon Rowlands and Toni Keddell.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2015.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Schools for J.D./M.B.A. Programs: #2 Harvard Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings are based on a 100-point formula that takes into account specialty courses offered (25 points), networking and extracurricular opportunities in the discipline (20 points each), other rankings such as those published by U.S. News & World Report, College Atlas, and Find the Best (15 points), proximity to subject-relevant employment centers (10 points), and length of program (10 points). Bonus points may be awarded for a service, program, or attribute in the discipline that isn’t considered by the aforementioned criteria.

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Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2015.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Law School Specialty Rankings Joint Degree Methodology appeared first on Law Street.

Last week’s top stories included a particularly sassy President Obama, the top law schools for criminal law, and a continued controversy involving Planned Parenthood. ICYMI, check out Law Street’s top stories below:

#1 Top 10 Condescending Quotes From Obama’s Iran Deal Press Conference

On Wednesday afternoon, Obama held a press conference in the White House East Room where he welcomed critics and reporters to ask questions of him regarding the newly struck nuclear deal. The conference lasted more than an hour, and drew out several candid responses from an increasingly condescending President Obama along with a slew of entertaining commentary by the president toward critics of the nuclear deal. Read full article here.

#2 Top 10 Law Schools for Criminal Law 2015

The legal industry is changing and law schools are no exception. Applications and enrollment are both down, and the value of the traditional legal education with its current price tag is the subject of continual debate. Law Street Specialty Rankings are a detailed resource for prospective law students as they consider the many law schools across the country. Law Street Specialty Rankings blend the quantitative and qualitative in a way that accurately highlights the top law schools based on specialty programs. This set of rankings deals with the best law schools for criminal law. See the full rankings here.

#3 Planned Parenthood Video: The Controversy Continues

Planned Parenthood is an organization with a mission to promote a healthy sexual lifestyle and family planning. But recent news of a few controversial videos surfacing may be changing some people’s opinions toward the organization. In the more widely viewed video, Center for Medical Progress–an advocacy group that claims to report on medical ethics–had two undercover actors pose as representatives of a human biologics company and went to lunch with Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services. Nucatola was secretly recorded and what she said during the video has led to serious arguments about both the video’s validity and Planned Parenthood’s actions. Read full article here.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post ICYMI: Best of the Week appeared first on Law Street.

ICYMI, check out the best of the week from Law Street, including Campus Crime rankings, celebs with JDs, and the latest controversy with Harper Lee’s new novel.

#1 Campus Crime 2015: Top 10 Highest Reported Crime Rates For Mid-Sized Colleges

Student safety is a high priority for all colleges and universities. While colleges and universities are typically safer than the areas that surround them, many schools face important and unique challenges. Law Street’s Campus Crime Rankings were created to serve as a comprehensive look at the safety of our college campuses, and to act as a resource for students, families, and college communities. Read full article here.

#2 Seven Celebrities You Didn’t Know Had Law Degrees

While law degrees are usually associated with stern, hardworking, white-collar professionals, there are other J.D. holding candidates who portray a different image. In fact many of us look up to these people without even knowing it, as they resemble some of today’s hottest celebrities and athletes. Read full article here.

#3 Atticus Finch Was Always Racist

This week, the white fiction world has been up in arms about Harper Lee’s portrayal of fictional, white lawyer Atticus Finch as explicitly racist in her long-awaited second book, “Go Set a Watchman.” Read full article here.

Chelsey D. Goff

Chelsey D. Goff was formerly Chief People Officer at Law Street. She is a Granite State Native who holds a Master of Public Policy in Urban Policy from the George Washington University. She’s passionate about social justice issues, politics — especially those in First in the Nation New Hampshire — and all things Bravo. Contact Chelsey at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post ICYMI: Best of the Week appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Hyunjae Ham, Symon Rowlands and Toni Keddell.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2015.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Criminal Law

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Criminal Law: #1 Harvard Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Hyunjae Ham, Symon Rowlands and Toni Keddell.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2015.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Criminal Law: #2 Columbia Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Hyunjae Ham, Symon Rowlands and Toni Keddell.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2015.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Criminal Law: #3 University of Pennsylvania Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Hyunjae Ham, Symon Rowlands and Toni Keddell.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2015.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Criminal Law: #4 Georgetown University Law Center appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Hyunjae Ham, Symon Rowlands and Toni Keddell.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2015.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Criminal Law: #5 New York University School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Hyunjae Ham, Symon Rowlands and Toni Keddell.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2015.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Criminal Law: #6 University of Chicago Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Hyunjae Ham, Symon Rowlands and Toni Keddell.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2015.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Criminal Law: #7 University of Colorado Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Hyunjae Ham, Symon Rowlands and Toni Keddell.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2015.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Criminal Law: #8 American University, Washington College of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Hyunjae Ham, Symon Rowlands and Toni Keddell.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2015.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Criminal Law

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Criminal Law: #10 University of Virginia School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Hyunjae Ham, Symon Rowlands, and Toni Keddell.

Click here for detailed ranking information for each of the 2015 Law School Rankings.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Criminal Law 2015 appeared first on Law Street.

Student safety is a high priority for all colleges and universities. While colleges and universities are typically safer than the areas that surround them, many schools face important and unique challenges. Law Street’s Campus Crime Rankings were created to serve as a comprehensive look at the safety of our college campuses, and to act as a resource for students, families, and college communities.

Federal law requires all postsecondary institutions that receive federal financial aid to report and monitor criminal offenses on their campuses. Each year this self-reported data is published by the Department of Education to help colleges and their communities understand the safety challenges that they face. Law Street Campus Crime Rankings utilize the most recent three years of this data to determine the average violent crime rate per 1,000 students for each school with available statistics.

Our rankings break up schools into different categories to ensure that the comparisons are as helpful and fair as possible. This list ranks mid-sized schools, which include four-year institutions with enrollments between 10,000 to 20,000 students.

Click here to see the data used to create these rankings. 

Check out the Top 10 Highest Crime Rates on Mid-Sized Campuses below:

#1 Highest Crime Rate: Howard University

Image courtesy of Ted Eytan via Flickr

Howard University is a private, historically black university located in Washington, D.C. Howard has the highest violent crime rate among medium-sized colleges with an average of 2.88 violent crimes per 1,000 students. Howard reported more robberies than any other medium-sized school with 48 between 2011 and 2013. Howard’s 2012 robbery count was revised last year to include 11 robberies that were recorded by the Metropolitan Police Department.

Two high-profile crimes in the summer of 2013 sparked debate over the safety of Howard students. A Howard senior was shot and killed during a robbery that occurred off campus in July and weeks later a woman was raped in a Howard classroom during the daytime. Even though that murder did not occur on campus and as a result is not included in the Clery Act statistics, the event influenced students’ perceptions of safety on and around campus. In response to these incidents, the Howard and D.C. police departments increased their presence on campus. In recent years Howard has made several attempts to provide new safety services for its students. In 2011, Howard instituted the Guardian system, which allows students to request that the school’s police department monitor them while walking alone. Howard recently started holding mandatory Title IX orientation for freshmen and implemented bystander intervention training to help prevent sexual assault on campus. The Howard University Department of Public Safety consists of both armed Special Police Officers and unarmed Security Officers who are commissioned or licensed by the Metropolitan Police Department.

Fall 2013 Enrollment: 10,297 (6,974 undergraduate)
Average Violent Crime Rate: 2.88 per 1,000
Murder: 0
Forcible Sex Offense: 16
Robbery: 48
Aggravated Assault: 25
Campus Setting: City (Large)

-Campus crime statistics are three year totals from 2011, 2012, and 2013
-The average violent crime rate is an average of the three-year data shown as a rate per 1,000 students

Click here to see the methodology used for the rankings.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Crime in America team:
Kevin Rizzo, Kwame Apea, Jennie Burger, Alissa Gutierrez, and Maurin Mwombela.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Campus Crime 2015: Top 10 Highest Reported Crime Rates for Mid-Sized Colleges appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Alexis Evans, Hyunjae Ham, Symon Rowlands and Toni Keddell.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2015.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Family Law: #1 Loyola University Chicago School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Student safety is a high priority for all colleges and universities. While colleges and universities are typically safer than the areas that surround them, many schools face important and unique challenges. Law Street’s Campus Crime Rankings were created to serve as a comprehensive look at the safety of our college campuses, and to act as a resource for students, families, and college communities.

Federal law requires all postsecondary institutions that receive federal financial aid to report and monitor criminal offenses on their campuses. Each year this self-reported data is published by the Department of Education to help colleges and their communities understand the safety challenges that they face. Law Street Campus Crime Rankings utilize the most recent three years of this data to determine the average violent crime rate per 1,000 students for each school with available statistics.

Our rankings break up schools into different categories to ensure that the comparisons are as helpful and fair as possible. This list ranks small schools, which include four-year institutions with enrollments between 1,500 to 10,000 students.

Click here to see the data used to create these rankings. 

Check out the Top 10 Highest Crime Rates on Small Campuses below:

#1 Highest Crime Rate: Swarthmore College

Image courtesy of Fritz Ward via Flickr

Swarthmore College is a private liberal arts college located in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, which sits about 11 miles outside of Philadelphia. Swarthmore had an average violent crime rate of 22.60 violent crimes per 1,000 students between 2011 and 2013, giving it the highest violent crime rate among all small colleges. The vast majority of reported crimes at Swarthmore are forcible sex offenses, which make up more than 95 percent of the school’s violent crimes.

In 2013, concerns about the school’s sexual assault policies led the college to hire an independent investigator to review its procedures. Several Swarthmore students also filed a Title IX complaint with the Department of Education claiming that their school mishandled several sexual assault cases. The complaint eventually led to an investigation by the Department of Education. Later that year, President Rebecca Chopp announced sweeping changes to the way the school handles sexual assault cases. Swarthmore hired a full-time Title IX coordinator and took several steps to improve its policies, training, and prevention efforts. To correct past reporting errors, the school reported a total of 89 forcible sexual offenses in 2013* (more than four times as many as the previous two years). While sexual assault remains a significant issue at Swarthmore, the dramatic increase in 2013 most likely reflects changes in the school’s reporting practices rather than a spike in actual incidents of sexual assault.

Fall 2013 Enrollment: 1,534 (all undergraduate)
Average Violent Crime Rate: 22.60 per 1,000 students
Murder: 0
Forcible Sex Offense: 99
Robbery: 1
Aggravated Assault: 4
Campus Setting: Suburb (Large)
*Swarthmore reported a total of 89 forcible sexual assaults in 2013 to correct errors in previous years’ statistics. Eleven of these incidents occurred prior to 2010. As a result, only 78 were included in the average violent crime rate calculation, as the rankings are only based on incidents that happened between 2011 and 2013.

-Campus crime statistics are three year totals from 2011, 2012, and 2013
-The average violent crime rate is an average of the three-year data shown as a rate per 1,000 students

Click here to see the methodology used for the rankings.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Crime in America team:
Kevin Rizzo, Kwame Apea, Jennie Burger, Alissa Gutierrez, and Maurin Mwombela.

Editor’s Note: This slide has been updated to more clearly reflect the chronology of the 2013 Title IX complaint. 

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Campus Crime 2015: Top 10 Highest Reported Crime Rates for Small Colleges appeared first on Law Street.

To see Law Street’s coverage of the Top 10 Highest Reported Crime Rates for Small Colleges click here.

The table below details three-year crime statistics (2011-2013) for all campuses with Fall 2013 enrollment between 1,500-9,999 students.

If you are having trouble viewing the table or are on mobile click here. For best results view in landscape.

*Swarthmore College reported a total of 89 forcible sexual assaults in 2013 to correct errors in previous years’ statistics. Eleven of these incidents occurred prior to 2010. As a result, only 78 were included in the average violent crime rate calculation, as the rankings are only based on incidents that happened between 2011 and 2013.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Crime in America team:
Kevin Rizzo, Kwame Apea, Jennie Burger, Alissa Gutierrez, and Maurin Mwombela.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Campus Crime 2015: Small School Data appeared first on Law Street.

Data

Law Street Media’s Campus Crime Rankings are based on statistics from the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. The Clery Act requires all postsecondary institutions that receive federal financial aid to report their annual crime statistics to the Department of Education. These statistics are the most accurate and comprehensive data available about crime on college campuses. Although the FBI also collects data on campus crime, its data is less inclusive than the data collected under the Clery Act. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report only includes statistics from law enforcement agencies and does not include all campus security forces. Reporting to the FBI is also voluntary, whereas the Clery Act is a requirement of all institutions receiving federal financial aid. The “Campus Setting” statistic comes from the National Center for Education Statistics.

Rankings

Campuses are ranked according to their average violent crime rate per 1,000 enrolled students using statistics from a three-year period (2011, 2012, 2013). Violent crimes include: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Enrollment numbers are based on the Fall 2013 count, which is also provided by the Office of Postsecondary Education. The number of violent crimes are totaled, converted to a rate per 1,000 enrolled students, and then divided by three to yield the average violent crime rate between 2011 and 2013. Only colleges offering four-year degrees are ranked.

While some nonviolent crimes are tracked by institutions according to the Clery Act, they are not factored into Law Street’s rankings. Data for crimes that occurred on campus as well as select non-campus buildings (definition below) were combined to provide the most accurate statistics for each school.

To view the aggregate data used in the rankings you can look at our table here. To download the data directly from the Office of Postsecondary Education click here.

Groupings

• A school is considered “small” if its Fall 2013 enrollment was between 1,500 and 9,999 students.
• A school is considered “mid-sized” if its Fall 2013 enrollment was between 10,000 and 20,000 students.
• A school is considered “large” if its Fall 2013 enrollment was greater than 20,000 students.

Definitions (according to the Office of Postsecondary Education)

• Non-campus: (1) Any building or property owned or controlled by a student organization that is officially recognized by the institution; or (2) Any building or property owned or controlled by an institution that is used in direct support of, or in relation to, the institution’s educational purposes, is frequently used by students, and is not within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution.
• On-Campus: (1) Any building or property owned or controlled by an institution within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area and used by the institution in direct support of, or in a manner related to, the institution’s educational purposes, including residence halls; and (2) Any building or property that is within or reasonably contiguous to paragraph (1) of this definition, that is owned by the institution but controlled by another person, is frequently used by students, and supports institutional purposes (such as a food or other retail vendor).
• Murder and non-negligent manslaughter: The willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another.
• Negligent Manslaughter: The killing of another person through gross negligence.
• Robbery: The taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear.
• Aggravated Assault: An unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury. This type of assault usually is accompanied by the use of a weapon or by means likely to produce death or great bodily harm.
• Forcible Sex Offense: Any sexual act directed against another person, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly or against the person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent.
  • Forcible Rape: The carnal knowledge of a person, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly or against the person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity (or because of his/her youth).
  • Forcible Sodomy: Oral or anal sexual intercourse with another person, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly against the person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her youth or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity.
  • Sexual Assault With an Object: The use of an object or instrument to unlawfully penetrate, however slightly, the genital or anal opening of the body of another person, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly or against the person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her youth or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity.
  • Forcible Fondling: The touching of the private body parts of another person for the purpose of sexual gratification, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or, not forcibly or against the person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her youth or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental incapacity.

Note: non-forcible rape statistics, which include incest and statutory rape, are not included in the average violent crime calculation.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Crime in America team:
Kevin Rizzo, Kwame Apea, Jennie Burger, Alissa Gutierrez, and Maurin Mwombela.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Campus Crime 2015: Methodology appeared first on Law Street.

ICYMI, check out the best of the week from Law Street, including gruesome human trafficking, international law rankings, and a slideshow of weird arrests.

#1 Human Trafficking in the U.S.: Pennsylvania Man Sentenced For Horrifying Crime

Human trafficking is the second largest form of organized crime in the world behind the illegal drug trade. The industry affects 12.3 million people each year, and generates more than $32 billion worldwide, yet many Americans don’t necessarily expect it to take place close to home. Yet the two most common forms of human trafficking, sex trafficking and labor trafficking, are on the rise in many states such as Pennsylvania. In a horrifying example of this phenomenon, a Pennsylvania man named Paul Sewell was just sentenced to 23 years in prison for prostituting young teenagers and producing child pornography, illustrating the prevalence of the crime. Read full article here.

#2 Law School Specialty Rankings 2015

The legal industry is changing and law schools are no exception. Applications and enrollment are both down, and the value of the traditional legal education with its current price tag is the subject of continual debate. Law Street Specialty Rankings are a detailed resource for prospective law students as they consider the many law schools across the country. Law Street Specialty Rankings blend the quantitative and qualitative in a way that accurately highlights the top law schools based on specialty programs. See full list here.

#3 Weird Arrests of the Week

It’s been a long, hot week in many parts of the country, but that still hasn’t stopped criminals from doing stupid things. Check out the slideshow of the weirdest arrests below. See full slideshow here.

Chelsey D. Goff

Chelsey D. Goff was formerly Chief People Officer at Law Street. She is a Granite State Native who holds a Master of Public Policy in Urban Policy from the George Washington University. She’s passionate about social justice issues, politics — especially those in First in the Nation New Hampshire — and all things Bravo. Contact Chelsey at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post ICYMI: Best of the Week appeared first on Law Street.

Crime across the United States has generally trended down over the years despite what you may gather every time you turn on the evening news. Not sure how your home compares? Check out the interactive map below, which details the latest violent crime statistics from the FBI by metro area. The darker the red, the higher the violent crime rate. All rates below are calculated per 100,000 people. Click here to read more information about Metropolitan Statistical Areas and these rankings.

READ MORE: 2015 CRIME RANKINGS FOR THE NORTHEAST, THE MIDWEST, THE WEST, AND THE SOUTH

READ MORE: SLIDESHOW: TOP 15 MOST DANGEROUS METRO AREAS IN THE UNITED STATES

If you are on mobile, view in landscape mode for best results.

The Office of Management and Budget began delineating Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the 1950s in order to provide an established level of analysis for government reports and statistics. MSAs are characterized as having an urban core with more than 50,000 people and surrounding areas that have close social and economic integration. The FBI does not provide data on all of the 388 MSAs defined by the Office of Management and Budget. Click here to see the FBI’s explanation for why all MSAs are not included. MSAs are organized by counties or their equivalent. All statistics in Law Street’s Crime in America metro rankings are presented as rates per 100,000 people, and they are taken from the FBI’s annual Crime in the United States publication section on metropolitan statistical areas. To see the FBI’s data click here.

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Research and analysis by Law Street’s Crime in America Team: Kevin Rizzo, Alexis Evans, Chelsey Goff, Anneliese Mahoney.

CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL CRIME IN AMERICA 2015 COVERAGE, INCLUDING THE SAFEST & MOST DANGEROUS CITIES AND STATES.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Crime in America 2015: Interactive Map of Crime by Metro Areas appeared first on Law Street.

The Memphis, Tennessee metro area tops the list of the South’s most dangerous metros. According to the latest data from the FBI, which covers calendar year 2013, Memphis had a violent crime rate of 993 per 100,000 people. Alternatively, the safest metro area in the South, Elizabethtown, Kentucky, had a violent crime rate of just 78 per 100,000 people. Virginia made the strongest showing with five of its metro areas ranking among the Top 10 Safest in the South. Overall, 41.4 percent of the violent crimes that occurred in the United States were committed in the South. The South is home to more than 37 percent of the nation’s population. Check out the rankings below to see the Top 10 Safest and Top 10 Most Dangerous metro areas across the South. All rates below are calculated per 100,000 people. Click here to read more information about Metropolitan Statistical Areas and these rankings.

Read More: 2015 crime rankings for the Northeast, the Midwest, and the West

Read More: Slideshow: Top 15 Most Dangerous Metros in the United States

Read More: Crime map of the United States

TOP 10 MOST DANGEROUS METROS IN THE SOUTH

#1 Memphis, TN-MS-AR Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #1
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 993
– Murder: 10
– Rape: 46
– Robbery: 257
– Aggravated Assault: 680
Population: 1,347,803

The Memphis, TN-MS-AR metro area includes: Crittenden County, Arkansas; Benton, DeSoto, Marshall, Tate, and Tunica Counties, Mississippi; and Fayette, Shelby, and Tipton Counties in Tennessee, as well as the city of Memphis.

Memphis, Tennessee is ranked the #3 most dangerous city with a population over 200,000.

#2 Jackson, TN Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #2
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 925
– Murder: 8
– Rape: 44
– Robbery: 129
– Aggravated Assault: 744
Population: 130,702

The Jackson, TN metro area includes: Chester, Crockett, and Madison Counties in Tennessee, as well as the city of Jackson.

#3 Hammond, LA Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #3
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 875
– Murder: 10
– Rape: 46
– Robbery: 126
– Aggravated Assault: 694
Population: 124,208

The Hammond, LA metro area includes: Tangipahoa Parish in Louisiana, as well as the city of Hammond.

 #4 Odessa, TX Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #4
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 806
– Murder: 2
– Rape: 39
– Robbery: 120
– Aggravated Assault: 645
Population: 147,448

The Odessa, TX metro area includes: Ector County in Texas, as well as the city of Odessa.

#5 Alexandria, LA Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #5
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 794
– Murder: 8
– Rape: 31
– Robbery: 122
– Aggravated Assault: 634
Population: 154,678

The Alexandria, LA metro area includes: Grant and Rapides Parishes in Louisiana, as well as the city of Alexandria.

#6 Lawton, OK Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #11
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 712
– Murder: 10
– Rape: 68
– Robbery: 127
– Aggravated Assault: 507
Population: 133,449

The Lawton, OK metro area includes: Comanche and Cotton Counties in Oklahoma, as well as the city of Lawton.

#7 Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #16
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 676
– Murder: 8
– Rape: 41
– Robbery: 176
– Aggravated Assault: 452
Population: 723,132

The Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR metro area includes: Faulkner, Grant, Lonoke, Perry, Pulaski, and Saline Counties in Arkansas, as well as the cities of Little Rock, North Little Rock, and Conway.

#8 Sumter, SC Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #17
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 672
– Murder: 6
– Rape: 47
– Robbery: 99
– Aggravated Assault: 519
Population: 108,703

The Sumter, SC metro area includes: Sumter County in South Carolina, as well as the city of Sumter.

#9 Lubbock, TX Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #19
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 658
– Murder: 3
– Rape: 39
– Robbery: 130
– Aggravated Assault: 487
Population: 300,769

The Lubbock, TX Metro Area includes: Crosby, Lubbock, and Lynn Counties in Texas, as well as the city of Lubbock.

 #10 Albany, GA Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #20
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 655
– Murder: 6
– Rape: 24
– Robbery: 142
– Aggravated Assault: 484
Population: 157,365

The Albany, GA metro area includes: Baker, Dougherty, Lee, Terrell, and Worth Counties in Georgia, as well as the city of Albany.

TOP 10 SAFEST METROS IN THE SOUTH

#1 Elizabethtown-Fort Knox, KY Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 78
– Murder: 1
– Rape: 23
– Robbery: 15
Aggravated Assault: 39
Population: 150,699

The Elizabethtown-Fort Knox, KY metro area includes: Hardin, Larue, and Meade Counties in Kentucky, as well as the city of Elizabethtown.

#2 Harrisonburg, VA Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 128
– Murder: 0.8
– Rape: 26
– Robbery: 13
– Aggravated Assault: 88
Population: 129,689

The Harrisonburg, VA metro area includes: Rockingham County in Virginia, as well as the city of Harrisonburg.

#3 Owensboro, KY Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 138
– Murder: 0.0
– Rape: 48
– Robbery: 45
– Aggravated Assault: 46
Population: 116,530

The Owensboro, KY metro area includes: Davies, Hancock, and McLean counties n Kentucky, as well as the city of Owensboro.

#4 Bowling Green, KY Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 144
– Murder: 1
– Rape: 44
– Robbery: 47
– Aggravated Assault: 53
Population: 163,437

The Bowling Green, KY metro area includes: Allen, Butler, Edmonson, and Warren counties in Kentucky, as well as the city of Bowling Green.

#5 Gainesville, GA Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 156
– Murder: 4
– Rape: 24
– Robbery: 37
– Aggravated Assault: 92
Population: 187,290

The Gainesville, GA metro area includes: Alachua and Gilchrist counties in Georgia, as well as the city of Gainesville.

#6 Staunton-Waynesboro, VA Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 167
– Murder: 2
– Rape: 44
– Robbery: 21
– Aggravated Assault: 101
Population: 119,067

The Saunton-Waynesboro, VA metro area includes: Augusta County in Virginia as well as the cities of Staunton and Waynesboro.

#7 Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford, VA Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 175
– Murder: 1
– Rape: 44
– Robbery: 11
– Aggravated Assault: 119
Population: 179,521

The Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford VA metro area includes: Floyd, Giles, Montgomery, and Pulaski counties in Virginia as well as the cities of Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Radford.

#8 The Villages, FL Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 175
– Murder: 2
– Rape: 14
– Robbery: 23
– Aggravated Assault: 136
Population: 104,608

The Villages, FL metro area includes: Sumter county, Florida.

#9 Winchester, VA-WV Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 186
– Murder: 2
– Rape: 46
– Robbery: 31
– Aggravated Assault: 106
Population: 131,881

The Winchester, VA-WV metro area includes: Frederick County and the city of Winchester in Virginia, and Hampshire County and the city of Winchester in West Virginia.

#10 Lynchburg, VA Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 191
– Murder: 2
– Rape: 32
– Robbery: 35
– Aggravated Assault: 122
Population: 256,835

The Lynchburg, VA metro area includes: Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford, and Campbell counties in Virginia, as well as the cities of Bedford and Lynchburg

The Office of Management and Budget began delineating Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the 1950s in order to provide an established level of analysis for government reports and statistics. MSAs are characterized as having an urban core with more than 50,000 people and surrounding areas that have close social and economic integration. The FBI does not provide data on all of the 388 MSAs defined by the Office of Management and Budget. Click here to see the FBI’s explanation for why all MSAs are not included. MSAs are organized by counties or their equivalent. All statistics in Law Street’s Crime in America metro rankings are presented as rates per 100,000 people, and they are taken from the FBI’s annual Crime in the United States publication section on metropolitan statistical areas. To see the FBI’s data click here.

—

Research and analysis by Law Street’s Crime in America Team: Kevin Rizzo, Alexis Evans, Chelsey Goff, Anneliese Mahoney.

Click here to see full Crime in America 2015 coverage, including the Safest & Most Dangerous Cities and States.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Crime in America 2015: Top 10 Safest & Most Dangerous Metros in the South appeared first on Law Street.

The Springfield, Illinois metro area is the number one most dangerous metro in the Midwest. According to the latest crime data from the FBI, which covers calendar year 2013, the Springfield metro had a rate of 768 violent crimes per 100,000 people. On the other end of the spectrum, the Wausau, Wisconsin metro is the safest in the Midwest with 93 violent crimes per 100,000 people. Of all violent crime across the nation 19.4 percent occurred in the Midwest, which is home to 21.4 percent of the nation’s population. The rankings below detail the violent crime rate for cities and their surrounding metropolitan area across the Midwest. Check out the rankings below to see the Top 10 Safest and Top 10 Most Dangerous metro areas across the South. All rates below are calculated per 100,000 people. Click here to read more information about Metropolitan Statistical Areas and these rankings.

READ MORE: 2015 CRIME RANKINGS FOR THE NORTHEAST, THE SOUTH, AND THE WEST

READ MORE: SLIDESHOW: TOP 15 MOST DANGEROUS METROS IN THE UNITED STATES

READ MORE: CRIME MAP OF THE UNITED STATES

TOP 10 MOST DANGEROUS METROS IN THE MIDWEST

#1 Springfield, IL Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #7
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 768
– Murder: 17
– Rape: 74
– Robbery: 165
– Aggravated Assault: 512
Population: 212,387

The Springfield, IL metro area includes: Menard and Sangamon counties in Illinois, as well as the city of Springfield.

#2 Saginaw, MI Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #8
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 752
– Murder: 19
– Rape: 75
– Robbery: 96
– Aggravated Assault: 562
Population: 198,026

The Saginaw, MI metro area includes: Saginaw County, Michigan as well as the city of Saginaw.

#3 Flint, MI Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #10
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 721
– Murder: 14
– Rape: 82
– Robbery: 168
– Aggravated Assault: 458
Population: 416,606

The Flint, MI metro area includes: Genesee County, Michigan as well as the city of Flint.

Flint, Michigan missed this year’s rankings, but was ranked the #1 most dangerous city with a population under 200,000 last year.

#4 Rockford, IL Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #12
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 711
– Murder: 8
– Rape: 58
– Robbery: 133
– Aggravated Assault: 513
Population: 344,806

The Rockford, IL metro area includes: Boone and Winnebago counties in Illinois, as well as the city of Rockford.

Rockford, Illinois is ranked the #2 most dangerous city with a population under 200,00 in 2015.

#5 Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #27
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 587
– Murder: 7
– Rape: 34
– Robbery: 235
– Aggravated Assault: 311
Population: 1,571,468

The Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI metro area includes: Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington, and Waukesha counties in Wisconsin, as well as the cities of Milwaukee, Waukesha, and West Allis.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin is ranked the #7 most dangerous city with a population over 200,000 in 2015.

#6 Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #34
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 570
– Murder: 10
– Rape: 50
– Robbery: 164
– Aggravated Assault: 346
Population: 4,296,628

The Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI metro area includes: the Metropolitan Divisions of Detroit-Dearborn-Livonia and Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills in Michigan, as well as the cities of Detroit, Warren, Dearborn, Livonia, Troy, Farmington Hills, Southfield, Taylor, and Novi.

Detroit, Michigan is ranked the #1 most dangerous city with a population over 200,000 in 2015.

#7 Wichita, KS Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #35
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 568
– Murder: 4
– Rape: 52
– Robbery: 78
– Aggravated Assault: 434
Population: 637,215

The Wichita, KS metro area includes: Butler, Harvey, Kingman, Sedgwick, and Sumner counties in Kansas, as well as the city of Wichita.

#8 Springfield, MO Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #46
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 533
– Murder: 3
– Rape: 76
– Robbery: 95
– Aggravated Assault: 359
Population: 448,011

The Springfield, MO metro area includes: Christian, Dallas, Greene, Polk, and Webster counties in Missouri, as well as the city of Springfield.

Springfield, Missouri is ranked the #5 most dangerous city with a population under 200,000 in 2015.

#9 Toledo, OH Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #49
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 530
– Murder: 5
– Rape: 34
– Robbery: 173
– Aggravated Assault: 318
Population: 609,674

The Toledo, OH metro area includes: Fulton, Lucas, and Wood counties in Ohio, as well as the city of Toledo.

#10 Cape Girardeau, MO-IL Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #66
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 490
– Murder: 7
– Rape: 24
– Robbery: 103
– Aggravated Assault: 357
Population: 97,510

The Cape Girardeau, MO-IL metro area includes: Alexander County in Illinois; and Bollinger and Cape Girardeau counties in Missouri, as well as the city of Cape Girardeau.

 TOP 10 SAFEST METROS IN THE MIDWEST

#1 Wausau, WI Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 93
– Murder: 2
– Rape: 13
– Robbery: 13
– Aggravated Assault: 66
Population: 135,041

The Wausau, WI metro area includes: Marathon County, Wisconsin as well as the city of Wausau.

#2 La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 123
– Murder: 2
– Rape: 19
– Robbery: 21
– Aggravated Assault: 81
Population: 135,914

The La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN metro area includes: Houston County, Minnesota; and La Crosse County, Wisconsin, as well as the cities of La Crosse and Onalaska.

#3 Appleton, WI Metro Area

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Rates/100,00 people
– Violent Crime: 124
– Murder: 0.4
– Rape: 17
– Robbery: 8
– Aggravated Assault: 99
Population: 229,465

The Appleton, WI metro area includes: Calumet and Outagamie counties in Wisconsin, as well as the city of Appleton.

#4 Eau Claire, WI Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 125
– Murder: 1
– Rape: 21
– Robbery: 14
– Aggravated Assault: 89
Population: 164,463

The Eau Claire, WI metro area includes: Chippewa and Eau Claire counties in Wisconsin, as well as the city of Eau Claire.

#5 Sheboygan, WI Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 142
– Murder: 0.9
– Rape: 24
– Robbery: 17
– Aggravated Assault: 101
Population: 114,951

The Sheboygan, WI metro area includes: Sheboygan County, Wisconsin as well as the city of Sheboygan.

#6 Rochester, MN Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 142
– Murder: 0
– Rape: 31
– Robbery: 27
– Aggravated Assault: 85
Population: 211,141

The Rochester, MN metro area includes: Dodge, Fillmore, Olmsted, and Wabasha counties in Wisconsin, as well as the city of Rochester.

#7 Ames, IA Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime:152
– Murder: 0
– Rape: 52
– Robbery: 16
– Aggravated Assault: 84
Population: 91,897

The Ames, IA metro area includes: Story County, Iowa as well as the city of Ames.

#8 Oshkosh-Neenah, WI Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 159
– Murder: 0
– Rape: 12
– Robbery: 17
– Aggravated Assault: 130
Population: 169,484

The Oshkosh-Neenah, WI metro area includes: Winnebago County, Wisconsin, as well as the cities of Oshkosh and Neenah.

#9 Dubuque, IA Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 160
– Murder: 0
– Rape: 17
– Robbery: 39
– Aggravated Assault: 104
Population: 95,753

The Dubuque, IA metro area includes: Dubuque County, Iowa as well as the city of Dubuque.

#10 St. Cloud, MN Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 168
– Murder: 1
– Rape: 47
– Robbery: 26
– Aggravated Assault: 95
Population: 191,531

The St. Cloud, MN metro area includes: Benton and Stearns counties in Minnesota, as well as the city of St. Cloud.

The Office of Management and Budget began delineating Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the 1950s in order to provide an established level of analysis for government reports and statistics. MSAs are characterized as having an urban core with more than 50,000 people and surrounding areas that have close social and economic integration. The FBI does not provide data on all of the 388 MSAs defined by the Office of Management and Budget. Click here to see the FBI’s explanation for why all MSAs are not included. MSAs are organized by counties or their equivalent. All statistics in Law Street’s Crime in America metro rankings are presented as rates per 100,000 people, and they are taken from the FBI’s annual Crime in the United States publication section on metropolitan statistical areas. To see the FBI’s data click here.

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Research and analysis by Law Street’s Crime in America Team: Kevin Rizzo, Alexis Evans, Chelsey Goff, Anneliese Mahoney.

CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL CRIME IN AMERICA 2015 COVERAGE, INCLUDING THE SAFEST & MOST DANGEROUS CITIES AND STATES.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Crime in America 2015: Top 10 Safest & Most Dangerous Metros in the Midwest appeared first on Law Street.

The Anchorage, Alaska metro area is the number one most dangerous metro in the West. According to the latest crime data from the FBI, which covers calendar year 2013, the Anchorage metro had a rate of 794 violent crimes per 100,000 people. This is compared to the safest metro in the West, Logan, Utah, which had 55 violent crimes per 100,000 people. California topped the list of Most Dangerous Metros with five cities on the list, while Utah had four metro areas in the West’s Top 10 Safest. Of the total number of violent crimes across the country, 23.5 percent occurred in the West, which is home to 23.5 percent of the nation’s population. Check out the rankings below to see the Top 10 Safest and Top 10 Most Dangerous metro areas across the West. All rates below are calculated per 100,000 people. Click here to read more information about Metropolitan Statistical Areas and these rankings.

READ MORE: 2015 CRIME RANKINGS FOR THE MIDWEST, THE SOUTH, AND THE NORTHEAST

READ MORE: SLIDESHOW: TOP 15 MOST DANGEROUS METROS IN THE UNITED STATES

READ MORE: CRIME MAP OF THE UNITED STATES

TOP 10 MOST DANGEROUS METROS IN THE WEST

#1 Anchorage, AK Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #6
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 794
– Murder: 5
– Rape: 133
– Robbery: 168
– Aggravated Assault: 488
Population: 314,553

The Anchorage, AK metro area includes: Anchorage Municipality and Matanuska-Susitna Borough in Alaska, as well as the city of Anchorage.

#2 Albuquerque, NM Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #9
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 742
– Murder: 6
– Rape: 64
– Robbery: 137
– Aggravated Assault: 536
Population: 902,627

The Albuquerque, NM metro area includes: Bernalillo, Sandoval, Torrance, and Valencia counties, as well as the city of Albuquerque.

#3 Stockton-Lodi, CA Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #13fa
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 703
– Murder: 7
– Rape: 19
– Robbery: 208
– Aggravated Assault: 469
Population: 708,679

The Stockton-Lodi, CA metro area includes: San Joaquin County as well as the cities of Stockton and Lodi.

#4 Fairbanks, AK Metro Area*

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Overall Rank: #14
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 682
– Murder: 0
– Rape: 101
– Robbery: 118
– Aggravated Assault: 463
Population: 34,741

The Fairbanks, AK metro area includes: the North Star Borough in Alaska as well as the city of Fairbanks.

*A large portion of the North Star Borough is policed by Alaskan State Troopers, which report their data as one agency. As a result, data is only available for a portion of the Fairbanks metropolitan area.

#5 Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #15
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 678
– Murder: 6
– Rape: 42
– Robbery: 233
– Aggravated Assault: 397
Population: 2,025,864

The Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV metro area includes: Clark County in Nevada, as well as the cities of Las Vegas and Henderson

#6 Madera, CA Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #18
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 666
– Murder: 9
– Rape: 39
– Robbery: 86
– Aggravated Assault: 532
Population: 152,772

The Madera, CA metro area includes: Madera County in California as well as the city of Madera.

#7 Pueblo, CO Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #21
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 655
– Murder: 3
– Rape: 105
– Robbery: 135
– Aggravated Assault: 412
Population: 162,300

The Pueblo, CO metro area includes: Pueblo County in Colorado as well as the city of Pueblo.

#8 Redding, CA Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #22
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 642
– Murder: 6
– Rape: 47
– Robbery: 103
– Aggravated Assault: 487
Population: 179,250

The Redding, CA metro area includes: Shasta County, California as well as the city of Redding.

#9 Merced, CA Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #26
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 588
– Murder: 10
– Rape: 30
– Robbery: 87
– Aggravated Assault: 461
Population: 264,498

The Merced, CA metro area includes: Merced County, California as well as the city of Merced.

#10 Bakersfield, CA Metro Area

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Overall Rank: #32
Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 576
– Murder: 7
– Rape: 20
– Robbery: 149
– Aggravated Assault: 400
Population: 862,202

The Bakersfield, CA metro area includes: Kern County, California as well as the city of Bakersfield.

TOP 10 SAFEST METROS IN THE WEST

#1 Logan, UT-ID Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 55
– Murder: 0.8
– Rape: 25
– Robbery: 0
– Aggravated Assault: 29
Population: 129,858

The Logan, UT-ID metro area includes: Franklin County in Idaho; and Cache County in Utah, as well as the city of Logan.

#2 Provo-Orem, UT Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 70
– Murder: 1
– Rape: 27
– Robbery: 9
Aggravated Assault: 33
Population: 561,483

The Provo-Orem, UT metro area includes: Juab and Utah counties in Utah, as well as the cities of Provo and Orem.

#3 Albany, OR Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 81
– Murder: 0.8
– Rape: 15
– Robbery: 38
– Aggravated Assault: 28
Population: 119,155

The Albany, OR metro area includes: Linn County in Oregon as well as the city of Albany.

#4 Corvallis, OR Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 120
– Murder: 0
– Rape: 15
– Robbery: 29
– Aggravated Assault: 76
Population: 86,952

The Corvallis, OR metro area includes: Benton County, Oregon, as well as the city of Corvallis.

#5 St. George, UT Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 141
– Murder: 1
– Rape: 39
– Robbery: 12
– Aggravated Assault: 89
Population: 147,923

The St. George, UT metro area includes: Washington County in Utah as well as the city of St. George.

#6 Idaho Falls, ID Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 159
– Murder: 2
– Rape: 35
– Robbery: 17
– Aggravated Assault: 104
Population: 137,561

The Idaho Falls, ID metro area includes: Bonneville, Butte, and Jefferson counties in Idaho, as well as the city of Idaho Falls.

#7 Grants Pass, OR Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 164
– Murder: 4
– Rape: 13
– Robbery: 45
– Aggravated Assault: 102
Population: 83,162

The Grants Pass, OR metro area includes: Josephine County, Oregon as well as the city of Grants Pass.

#8 Ogden-Clearfield, UT Metro Area

Click image to enlarge.

Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 164
– Murder: 1
– Rape: 53
– Robbery: 30
– Aggravated Assault: 80
Population: 620,648

The Ogden-Clearfield, UT metro area includes: Box Elder, Davis, Morgan, and Weber counties in Utah, as well as the cities of Ogden and Clearfield.

# 9 Lewiston, ID-WA Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 183
– Murder: 0
– Rape: 18
– Robbery: 34
– Aggravated Assault: 131
Population: 61,820

The Lewiston, ID-WA metro area includes: Includes Nez Perce County in Idaho as well as the city of Lewiston; and Asotin County, Washington.

#10 Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA Metro Area

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Rates/100,000 people
– Violent Crime: 194
– Murder: 4
– Rape: 10
– Robbery: 72
– Aggravated Assault: 107
Population: 840,678

The Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA metro area includes: Includes Ventura County, California, as well as the cities of Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, Ventura, and Camarillo.

The Office of Management and Budget began delineating Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the 1950s in order to provide an established level of analysis for government reports and statistics. MSAs are characterized as having an urban core with more than 50,000 people and surrounding areas that have close social and economic integration. The FBI does not provide data on all of the 388 MSAs defined by the Office of Management and Budget. Click here to see the FBI’s explanation for why all MSAs are not included. MSAs are organized by counties or their equivalent. All statistics in Law Street’s Crime in America metro rankings are presented as rates per 100,000 people, and they are taken from the FBI’s annual Crime in the United States publication section on metropolitan statistical areas. To see the FBI’s data click here.

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Research and analysis by Law Street’s Crime in America Team: Kevin Rizzo, Alexis Evans, Chelsey Goff, Anneliese Mahoney.

CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL CRIME IN AMERICA 2015 COVERAGE, INCLUDING THE SAFEST & MOST DANGEROUS CITIES AND STATES.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Crime in America 2015: Top 10 Safest & Most Dangerous Metros in the West appeared first on Law Street.

There are a lot of factors that go into choosing the right law school. When considering where to apply, we look at things like prestige, specialty areas, and affordability to help us guide our decisions. But according to a study done at the University of Minnesota, another thing that we should be considering is a law school’s proximity to major law firms.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota found that a law school’s proximity to major law firms can affect its students’ future employment prospects. They found that students who are earning their law degrees in areas with many major legal firms are entering communities with better retention for young lawyers. This longevity is something uniquely found in these areas, as many of the firms are looking to hire students from the nearby law schools.

The study explored 33,000 law partners from the biggest and top-earning 115 law firms across the country. They then determined what law school each of those partners attended, and ranked the law schools. The official report with all of the numerical findings and rankings is set to be published this May. So, if working for a big firm after graduation is your goal, it may be a good idea to check out that report and aim for a law school in one of those locations.

Maggie Gloyeske, the director of lawyer and consultant recruiting at Faegre Baker Daniels, has stressed that her firm likes to hire from local law schools in Minnesota. She said: “lawyers who come to work for us, who have a connection to our community, tend to stay longer and think of this as a career move versus just a job.”

While this finding isn’t anything new or shocking, it is often something that is overlooked by students when they are considering where to apply. Many students rely heavily on the rankings put out each year by the U.S. News and World Report or other outlets. While these rankings are certainly a useful tool when first starting the law school search, as they give a broad overview of the law schools on the list, they omit several important factors like the number of graduates that go on to work in local law firms.

This may be because those rankings put significant weight on surveys completed by lawyers, law professors, and judges. According to Samuel Engel, one of the co-authors of the study, these professionals are likely to give law schools the same ranking each year, regardless of any changes that the schools may make. Engel stated that “it’s hard for [USNWR] to get these trends because they’re asking people who haven’t been in law school for a generation to rank law schools.”

While the USNWR rankings focused on a school’s reputation, immediate employment placement, and LSAT scores, the study done by the University of Minnesota based its evaluations on the school sizes and the number of graduates who went on to work at major law firms in their area. As a result, that list looked quite different.

This is not the first time that someone has taken a different approach to ranking  law schools. This past summer, we at Law Street Media put out a set of law school rankings by speciality area. These rankings took into account things such as class offerings, alumni relations, and extracurricular programs. Additionally, like the University of Minnersota’s rankings, our rankings included law school proximity to major law firms. The goal of these rankings was to offer a qualitative and more comprehnsive approach to something that is often quantitative.

While each of these sets of rankings has something unique to offer, none of them are exhaustive. When considering what law schools to apply to, my advice would be to do as much research as possible while using the rankings as a starting point. While law school rankings are a useful tool, law schools have so much more to offer than just a place on a list.

Brittany Alzfan

Brittany Alzfan is a student at the George Washington University majoring in Criminal Justice. She was a member of Law Street’s founding Law School Rankings team during the summer of 2014. Contact Brittany at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Choosing a Law School? Location Matters appeared first on Law Street.

Alaska is the most dangerous state in the nation according to the latest violent crime data from the FBI. With an increase in violent crime rate from 603 per 100,000 people in 2012 to 640 in 2013–the most recent year for which the FBI provides data–Alaska moved into the number one spot, followed by New Mexico (613) and Nevada (603). Law Street’s second annual slideshow of the Safest and Most Dangerous States ranks all 50 states from most dangerous to safest and details the violent crime statistics for every city in the country with a reported population of 25,000 or more. Each state’s qualifying cities are listed from highest to lowest rate of violent crime per 100,000 people, which is comprised of murder, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery.

Go directly to your state: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, HA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY

Alaska: #1 Most Dangerous State | 640 Violent Crimes/100,000 People

Courtesy of Travis via Flickr.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Slideshow: America’s Safest and Most Dangerous States 2015 appeared first on Law Street.

From coast to coast, crime was king last week. Law Street released its Crime in America 2015 coverage, which ranked America’s Safest and Most Dangerous Cities. The rankings, based on the FBI’s latest city crime data released on the same day, featured 30 America cities that have varying degrees of success combating violent crime. Violent crime across the country is on the decline, but that isn’t true of each individual city. ICYMI, check out the rankings below to see where you city falls on the spectrum.

#1 Crime in America 2015: Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities Over 200,000

Detroit is the Most Dangerous City in America for the second year in a row, according to data released today by the FBI. Detroit maintains this ranking despite an overall violent crime decrease of 2.5 percent over the course of 2013, the latest year for which the FBI has released crime statistics. Read full article here.

#2 Crime in America 2015: Top 10 Safest Cities Over 200,000

Irvine, California is the Safest City in the United States for the second year in a row, according to data released today by the FBI. The 235,000-person city experienced a five percent decrease in violent crime throughout 2013–the most recent year for which the FBI has provided data. Read full article here.

#3 Crime in America 2015: Full Coverage

With the vast majority of Americans living in cities and suburbs, safety is a major concern across the country. Each city has a unique set of challenges to address in order to provide security to its residents, and the results vary widely. Law Street Media’s Crime in America 2015  coverage is the first comprehensive look at the FBI’s latest crime statistics for every American city with a population over 100,000 people. Read full article here.

Chelsey D. Goff

Chelsey D. Goff was formerly Chief People Officer at Law Street. She is a Granite State Native who holds a Master of Public Policy in Urban Policy from the George Washington University. She’s passionate about social justice issues, politics — especially those in First in the Nation New Hampshire — and all things Bravo. Contact Chelsey at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post ICYMI: Best of the Week appeared first on Law Street.

For the second year in a row, Detroit, Michigan and Irvine, California are the Most Dangerous and Safest cities in the America, respectively. Law Street’s comprehensive analysis of the FBI’s latest Uniform Crime Report allowed us to rank the safest and the most dangerous big cities in the United States.

Click here to see the Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities with populations over 200,000.

Click here to see the Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities with populations under 200,000.

Click here to see the Top 10 Safest Cities with populations over 200,000.

Detroit has a violent crime rate of 2,072 per 100,000 people; Irvine has a violent crime rate of 48 per 100,000 people. Looking at those statistics alone begs the question: how could two sizable cities in the same country be so radically different?

At the end of the day it comes down to pretty much one thing: the economy. While there are significantly more factors that need to be taken into consideration when trying to figure out why one city is so crime-ridden and another so relatively safe, a lot of it boils down to the economy.

Detroit currently has an unemployment rate of 14.9 percent; Irvine’s is about 4 percent. Keep in mind that the national unemployment rate has dropped to 5.8 percent, which means that while Irvine is doing pretty well, Detroit is doing very, very poorly. In Detroit, 38.1 percent of the population is below the poverty line, in Irvine it’s just 11.4 percent.

In some ways, it seems that the two cities are from two different times in American history. Detroit was once a booming manufacturing city, home of the auto industry. But the problem is that it was really only the home of the auto industry. And when it first took on that characteristic, the process required way more people to make a car than it does now. There’s also the issue of foreign automakers surpassing American brands, and the 2008 financial collapse. Long, sad story short, Detroit has not been able to subsist on just one industry for a very long time, and it shows.

Compare that to Irvine, which in many ways is the epitome of the way our economy looks now. It’s smack dab in the middle of Southern California’s answer to Silicon Valley, with a heavy concentration on technology and startup culture. Irvine is a city that has taken advantage of the new industries providing jobs in the American market, much like Detroit did, but half a century later.

Detroit’s downfall is more troubling than just the economic woes–when the city started to decline and see mass unemployment, many of those who had the resources to do so got out. Over the last decade, Detroit’s population has fallen by approximately a quarter. It’s turned into a vicious cycle–people who have the resources to leave Detroit do so because of its poor economic condition and crime. Those with financial resources leaving make the city’s economy and budget problems worse, and they can’t pay for the kind of revitalization Detroit would need, or a police force to get the crime under control. So more people leave, and the cycle continues.

Put very simply,  Irvine is safer because it has the money coming in to be that way. In addition to its regular police force, the multiple universities located within city limits have their own police forces, leading to even more of a focus on safety. There are a lot of things that separate Detroit and Irvine, and makes one clock in as the most dangerous city in the country and the other the safest. At the end of the day one of the most convincing is the economy.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Detroit is the Most Dangerous City in America, Irvine the Safest appeared first on Law Street.

If you’ve been following Law Street’s Crime in America 2015 city crime rankings you might have one big question: where are Flint and Chicago? Flint, Michigan was the #1 Most Dangerous City with a population under 200,000 last year, and preliminary data from the FBI indicated that it would remain so this time around, and reporting on Chicago’s violent crime pervades American media. So where are Flint and Chicago on these lists?

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOP 10 MOST DANGEROUS CITIES WITH POPULATIONS OVER 200,000.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOP 10 MOST DANGEROUS CITIES WITH POPULATIONS UNDER 200,000.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOP 10 SAFEST CITIES WITH POPULATIONS OVER 200,000.

First let’s look at Flint. It’s not because it isn’t still really dangerous–it very much is. It comes down to its population, though, and if the city had just 59 more residents it would have easily maintained its #1 Most Dangerous City ranking over Little Rock, Arkansas. According to the FBI, Flint’s population decreased by 1,691 last year, putting the city just 59 residents shy of the 100,000-person threshold that Law Street uses to rank the most dangerous mid-sized cities.

Flint has a violent crime rate of 1,908 per 100,000 people, which far exceeds Little Rock’s violent crime rate of 1,407. Flint’s murder rate clocks in at 48 per 100,000, while Little Rock is only at 18 per 100,000. Flint’s population statistics speak for themselves as well: the median household income is just $26,339, and almost 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

If Flint had those 59 additional people it would definitely be the #1 Most Dangerous City in America–but that does not mean things aren’t getting better there. They absolutely are; this year’s crime statistics saw a dramatic decrease in violent crime in the city. Last year, Flint had a violent crime rate of 2,729 per 100,000 people, which means that its overall rate has dropped 30 percent. The murder rate dropped by quite a bit too, from about 62 per 100,000 people to 48 per 100,000 people. So while Flint is still incredibly dangerous, things are getting better there, just slowly.

Now to Chicago–another notable exception from the list of Most Dangerous Cities. The answer here is fairly simple. Chicago isn’t included in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report from which our data is curated. According to the FBI, Chicago under-reports its crime data, so the numbers are simply missing from the FBI report, making it impossible to rank the Windy City in a uniform way with its like-size counterparts.

While Law Street’s statistics are definitive and it’s interesting to look at what cities make the list, it’s also very interesting to see which cities are missing. Flint and Chicago are two notable examples for two very different reasons.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Flint and Chicago Are Still Dangerous Despite Absence From Rankings appeared first on Law Street.

Little Rock, Arkansas is the #1 Most Dangerous City in the United States with a population under 200,000 according to data released today by the FBI. Overall violent crime in Little Rock increased nearly seven percent over the course of 2013–the latest year for which the FBI has published data. Rockford, Illinois and New Haven, Connecticut switched positions this year to #2 and #3, respectively. Flint, Michigan, last year’s #1 Most Dangerous City, is not ranked this year as its population according to the FBI dropped 59 people below the 100,000-person threshold to rank. Look at the slideshow below to see the full list of Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities in America under 200,000, and click here to see full Crime in America 2015 coverage.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOP 10 MOST DANGEROUS CITIES UNDER 200,000 IN SINGLE-PAGE FORMAT.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOP 10 MOST DANGEROUS CITIES WITH POPULATIONS OVER 200,000.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOP 10 SAFEST CITIES WITH POPULATIONS OVER 200,000.

[SlideDeck2 id=28347 ress=1 proportional=false]

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Research and analysis by Law Street’s Crime in America Team: Kevin Rizzo, Chelsey Goff, and Anneliese Mahoney.

Click here for FBI data on each of the cities ranked above. Click here for all Law Street crime data.

Click here for additional information on Law Street’s crime-ranking methodology.

Sources:

FBI: Violent crime, population, murder, and officer statistics, measured January – December 2013.

U.S. Census Bureau: Median household income, measured 2007-2011.

U.S. Census Bureau: Poverty, measured 2008-2012.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Crime in America 2015: Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities Under 200,000 appeared first on Law Street.

Detroit is the Most Dangerous City in America for the second year in a row, according to data released today by the FBI. Detroit maintains this ranking despite an overall violent crime decrease of 2.5 percent over the course of 2013, the latest year for which the FBI has released crime statistics. Oakland also maintained its #2 ranking for the second year in a row, followed by Memphis, which moved to #3 after its rank at #4 last year. Look at the slideshow below to see the full list of Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities in America, and click here to see full Crime in America 2015 coverage.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOP 10 MOST DANGEROUS CITIES OVER 200,000 IN SINGLE-PAGE FORMAT.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOP 10 MOST DANGEROUS CITIES WITH POPULATIONS UNDER 200,000.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOP 10 SAFEST CITIES WITH POPULATIONS OVER 200,000.

[SlideDeck2 id=28300 ress=1 proportional=false]

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Research and analysis by Law Street’s Crime in America Team: Kevin Rizzo, Chelsey Goff, and Anneliese Mahoney.

Click here for additional information on Law Street’s crime-ranking methodology.

Sources:

FBI: Violent crime, population, murder, and officer statistics, measured January – December 2013.

U.S. Census Bureau: Median household income, measured 2007-2011.

U.S. Census Bureau: Poverty, measured 2008-2012.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Crime in America 2015: Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities Over 200,000 appeared first on Law Street.

Law Street’s Crime Team used the FBI’s four major violent crime categories–murders, aggravated assaults, robberies, and forcible rapes–to create a standard measure of violent-crimes-per-100,000 people among all cities over 100,000 people reporting crime data to the FBI. This allows year-to-year and city-to-city comparisons. To derive the ratio, the total number of violent crimes reported to the FBI  is divided by the city’s population, with  the result then multiplied by 100,000. The formula for this calculation is shown below. Crime rankings were further broken down by population, with 200,000 used as the dividing point.

Violent Crime Rate = (Total Violent Crime in a City/City Population) x 100,000

Click here to read more Crime in America coverage.

Chelsey D. Goff

Chelsey D. Goff was formerly Chief People Officer at Law Street. She is a Granite State Native who holds a Master of Public Policy in Urban Policy from the George Washington University. She’s passionate about social justice issues, politics — especially those in First in the Nation New Hampshire — and all things Bravo. Contact Chelsey at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Crime Ranking Methodology appeared first on Law Street.

Irvine, California is the Safest City in the United States for the second year in a row, according to data released today by the FBI. The 235,000-person city experienced a five percent decrease in violent crime throughout 2013–the most recent year for which the FBI has provided data. Gilbert, Arizona also maintained its rank at #2, followed by Fremont, California, which moved up to #3 from #4 last year. Look at the slideshow below to see the full list of Top 10 Safest Cities in the United States, and click here to see full Crime in America 2015 coverage.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE TOP 10 SAFEST CITIES IN SINGLE-PAGE FORMAT.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOP 10 MOST DANGEROUS CITIES WITH POPULATIONS OVER 200,000.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOP 10 MOST DANGEROUS CITIES WITH POPULATIONS UNDER 200,000.

[SlideDeck2 id=28366 ress=1 proportional=false]

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Research and analysis by Law Street’s Crime in America Team: Kevin Rizzo, Chelsey Goff, and Anneliese Mahoney.

Click here for additional information on Law Street’s crime-ranking methodology.

Sources:

FBI: Violent crime, population, murder, and officer statistics, measured January – December 2013.

U.S. Census Bureau: Median household income, measured 2007-2011.

U.S. Census Bureau: Poverty, measured 2008-2012.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Crime in America 2015: Top 10 Safest Cities Over 200,000 appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here for detailed ranking information for each of the Top 10 Law Schools for Entertainment Law.

Featured image courtesy of [Widener University School of Law via Flickr]

Chelsey D. Goff

Chelsey D. Goff was formerly Chief People Officer at Law Street. She is a Granite State Native who holds a Master of Public Policy in Urban Policy from the George Washington University. She’s passionate about social justice issues, politics — especially those in First in the Nation New Hampshire — and all things Bravo. Contact Chelsey at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Entertainment Law 2014 appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here for detailed ranking information for each of the Top 10 Law Schools for Environmental & Energy Law.

Featured image courtesy of [AIGA/NY via Flickr]

Chelsey D. Goff

Chelsey D. Goff was formerly Chief People Officer at Law Street. She is a Granite State Native who holds a Master of Public Policy in Urban Policy from the George Washington University. She’s passionate about social justice issues, politics — especially those in First in the Nation New Hampshire — and all things Bravo. Contact Chelsey at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Environmental & Energy Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of: [Jonathan71 via WikiMedia]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Environmental and Energy Law: #2 New York University School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of: [Yendor Oz via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Environmental and Energy Law: #3 Pace University School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [thisisbossi via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Environmental and Energy Law: #4 Georgetown University Law Center appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Ingfbruno via WikiMedia]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Environmental and Energy Law: #5 The George Washington University Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Alan Cordova via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Environmental & Energy Law: #6 University of California Berkeley School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Gonk via WikiMedia Commons]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Environmental and Energy Law: #7 Tulane University Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Frederic C. Chalfant via Wikimedia Commons]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Environmental & Energy Law: #8 University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Chensiyuan via Wikipedia]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Environmental & Energy Law: #9 Harvard Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Jonathan Yu via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Environmental & Energy Law: #10 Stanford Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Business law programs attract thousands of students across the country each year. These curriculum tracts prepare the next generation of lawyers for a a wide variety of niche areas from business transactions to securities regulation. The top law schools in this field bring together practical experience, expert instruction, and connection to top-tier professionals in the discipline to prepare students for this highly complicated and demanding career field.

Click here for detailed ranking information for each of the Top 10 Law Schools for Business Law, and click here for the methodology used.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here for detailed ranking information for each of the Top 10 Law Schools for Business Law.

Featured image courtesy of [Nguyen Hung Vu via Flickr]

Chelsey D. Goff

Chelsey D. Goff was formerly Chief People Officer at Law Street. She is a Granite State Native who holds a Master of Public Policy in Urban Policy from the George Washington University. She’s passionate about social justice issues, politics — especially those in First in the Nation New Hampshire — and all things Bravo. Contact Chelsey at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Business Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of: [Jonathan71 via WikiMedia]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Business Law: #1 New York University School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Chensiyuan via Wikipedia]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Business Law: #2 Harvard Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Drew Garaetz via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Business Law: #3 Columbia Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Alanscottwalker via Wikipedia]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Business Law: #4 Northwestern University School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Matthew G. Bisanz via Wikipedia]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Business Law: #5 University of Chicago Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [William Ward via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Business Law: #6 Fordham University School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [thisisbossi via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Business Law: #7 Georgetown University Law Center appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Coolcaesar via Wikipedia]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Business Law: #8 UCLA School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Amerique via Wikimedia Commons]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Business Law: #9 Loyola University Chicago School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Pradipta Mitra via Wikimedia Commons]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Business Law: #10 Yale Law School appeared first on Law Street.

The healthcare law specialty has grown exponentially in recent years, especially with the development of the Affordable Care Act and the varied state-level initiatives for implementation. The call for qualified lawyers in the field will only grow as battles over the ACA continue. Here are Law Street’s top ten law schools that provide their students with extensive and holistic educations in Healthcare Law.

Click here for detailed ranking information for each of the Top 10 Law Schools for Healthcare Law, and click here for the methodology used.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here for detailed ranking information for each of the Top 10 Law Schools for Healthcare Law.

Featured image courtesy of [UBC Library via Flickr]

Correction 7/9/14: The Top 10 Law Schools for Healthcare Law rankings have been updated to include new information since their release on July 7.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Healthcare Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Amerique via Wikimedia Commons]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Healthcare Law: #1 Loyola University Chicago School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [thisisbossi via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Healthcare Law: #2 Georgetown University Law Center appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Frederic C. Chalfant via Wikimedia Commons]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Healthcare Law: #3 University of Maryland Carey School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Denacipriano via Wikimedia Commons]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Schools for Healthcare Law: #4 Case Western Reserve University School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Chensiyuan via Wikipedia]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Schools for Healthcare Law: #6 Harvard Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Pradipta Mitra via Wikimedia Commons]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Schools for Healthcare Law: #7 Yale Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Anne via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Schools for Healthcare Law: #8 Boston University School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [MC Lewis via Wikipedia]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Schools for Healthcare Law: #9 University of Houston Law Center appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Bonbar via Wikimedia Commons]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Schools for Healthcare Law: #5 Georgia State University College of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Charles Paradis via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Schools for Healthcare Law: #10 University of Virginia School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Looking to attend a law school that can hook you up with a judicial clerkship? Well here’s some information that might help you decide — Robert Morse of US News and World Report just ranked law schools by 2012 J.D. graduates who hold the most judicial clerkships.

What are Judicial Clerkships?

Clerkships are like beefed-up, paid internships that are specifically designed for law students. They are interactive opportunities that allow aspiring attorneys to assist judges in federal, state, or local courts. Clerks work jointly with judges on their caseloads and get a peek inside the courtroom environment.

Clerkships provide students with practical experience, require them to conduct legal research, and practice legal writing. Law school graduates, as well as second- and third-year students usually apply for the prestigious positions. Clerks work from one year to three years and receive salaries based on “legal work experience subsequent to graduation from law school, bar membership, and applicable locality pay adjustments,” according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

Why are Clerkships Valuable?

Law students are encouraged to pursue judicial clerkships because of the experience, wealth of knowledge, and networking opportunities they provide to participants. According to the University of Memphis Clerkship Manual, students should seek judicial clerkships because:

A judicial clerkship is one of the most prestigious, interesting, and professionally rewarding jobs in the legal profession. Judicial clerkships provide credentials, skills, and connections that will benefit you for your entire legal career. A judicial clerk obtains behind‐the‐scenes experience with the workings of the judicial system, has the opportunity to develop and refine research, writing, and legal analysis skills, and learns the intricacies of trial or appellate procedure. Because such positions are limited and viewed as highly prestigious, a judicial clerkship can further career goals and provide a competitive edge in seeking both private and public sector legal employment.

Morse Code: Judicial Clerkship Rankings

Morse broke down the rankings for graduates employed in federal courts separately from those working at state and local courts. He calculated his proportions by examining the percentage of employed graduates with respect to the type of courts they work in.

While the rankings indicate which schools may give grads a better chance of landing clerkships in federal, state, or local courts, it’s important to note that a high percentage does not guarantee a position. Likewise, those schools with lower rankings do not necessarily indicate failure to obtain positions.

1. Yale University (36.3%)
2. Stanford University (29.1%)
3. Harvard University (18.5%)
4. University of Chicago (15%)
5. Duke University (14.3%)

The top five schools with the highest percentages of 2012 J.D. graduates working in state and local judicial clerkships were ranked as follows:

1. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey – Camden (42%)
2. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey – Newark (33.2%)
3. Seton Hall University (33.1%)
4. University of Hawaii – Manoa (Richardson) (28%)
5. University of South Dakota (20.6%)

Typically, federal clerkships are harder to obtain, but state and local clerkships provide valuable experience as well. Morse cited U.S. Supreme Court clerkships as the ultimate achievement for law school graduates, though they are the hardest to land. Perhaps that’s why the proportion of J.D. graduates with federal clerkships graduated from schools which consistently rank higher nationally. There’s also a cyclical aspect — alumni of Ivy League universities who ascend to clerkships can help their young peers connect with those positions down the road. Furthermore, it seems schools that rank lower overall send more students to state and local courts, possibly because those positions are less competitive. Regardless, law schools encourage their students to apply for clerkships at any level in order to advance their careers and dip their toes into the legal profession.

Though the legal field may be suffering setbacks right now, the number of students securing long-term employment after graduating law school is slowly increasing. According to the American Bar Association, the number of J.D. graduates who were employed increased 0.7 percent since 2012, but the number of grads who are unemployed or seeking work also increased 0.6 percent. Thus, law students should take advantage of opportunities like clerkships to advance their chances of finding stable work after graduation.

Indiana University’s Robert H. McKinney School of Law considers legal clerkships “attractive to future legal employers who hire former judicial clerks for their significant legal knowledge, insider view of the court system, and ability to view cases from the court’s perspective.” The behind-the-scenes experience earned through judicial clerkships serves as a bridge between graduating law school and practicing law. It also provides recent graduates with the opportunity to figure out where they might want to spend their legal careers — inside or outside a courtroom. So, if you’re considering law school, you may want to check out your prospective educator’s clerkship rankings. It could make all the difference for your future.

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Natasha Paulmeno (@natashapaulmeno)

Featured image courtesy of [Frank Kehren via Flickr]

Natasha Paulmeno

Natasha Paulmeno is an aspiring PR professional studying at the University of Maryland. She is learning to speak Spanish fluently through travel, music, and school. In her spare time she enjoys Bachata music, playing with her dog, and exploring social media trends. Contact Natasha at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Want to Make Sure You Get a Job After Law School? Apply for a Clerkship Now appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Billy Ward via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Intellectual Property: #8 Fordham University School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Alan Cordova via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Intellectual Property: #9 University of California Berkeley School of Law appeared first on Law Street.

Research and analysis done by Law Street’s Law School Rankings team: Anneliese Mahoney, Brittany Alzfan, Erika Bethmann, Matt DeWilde, and Natasha Paulmeno.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here for information on rankings methodology.

Featured image courtesy of [Jonathan Yu via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Top 10 Law Schools for Intellectual Property: #9 Stanford Law School appeared first on Law Street.

Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings are based on a 100-point formula that takes into account information such as specialty courses offered (25 points), graduates employed in the specialty (20), proximity to subject-relevant employment centers (15), networking and extracurricular opportunities in the discipline (15 each), and other rankings such as those published by U.S. News & World Report, College Atlas, and Find the Best (10 points). Bonus points may be awarded for a service, program, or attribute in the discipline that isn’t considered by the aforementioned criteria.

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Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2014.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2015.

Click here to read more coverage on Law Street’s Law School Specialty Rankings 2016.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Law School Specialty Rankings Methodology appeared first on Law Street.