Violent Crime Skyrocketing in the Suburbs

National law enforcement efforts focus on the big urban areas. As a result violent criminals have moved to the suburbs along with the general population. In any case, violent crime is on the rise along with the sadistic nature of those crimes:

Not only was violent crime in suburban communities with populations between 25,000 and 49,999 up for the third year in a row in 2006, but it grew by 3.2 percent -- significantly faster than the nationwide increase of 1.3 percent, according to recently released FBI statistics. By comparison, during that same period, cities with more than 1 million people saw violent crime edge up by only 0.2 percent while rural areas saw a decrease of 5.3 percent. Only cities between 250,000 and 499,999 witnessed similar increases, with violent crime in those areas also surging by 3.2 percent.

What is ironic is that many people fled to the suburbs to avoid the crime normally associated with big cities:

To be sure, crime rates in U.S. suburbs remain substantially lower than in big cities. But as suburbs have grown in population and drug use and drug-related violence, experts say, their residents are increasingly facing more of the risks confronting urban dwellers.