LAWRENCE, KS — Nevada today was named the nation’s most dangerous state. This marks the third consecutive year that the Silver State has earned this designation. The announcement was made in Crime State Rankings 2006, an annual reference book published by Morgan Quitno Press, a Lawrence, Kansas-based independent research and publishing company. At the opposite end of the rankings scale, North Dakota repeats as the nation’s safest state, an honor it has held for nine of the past 10 years.

"Nevada struggles with crime and other problems as it continues its rapid growth,” said Scott Morgan, President of Morgan Quitno Press. “Its violent crime rate was up nearly 18% in the five years from 2000 to 2004, while nationally, violent crime rates have decreased 8%.”

The 13th annual Most Dangerous and Safest State designations were based on six basic crime factors reported in Morgan Quitno’s just-released annual reference book, Crime State Rankings 2006. Factors considered were rates per 100,000 population for murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft. States are ranked based on how they compare to the national average for each crime category. The findings are based on 2004 crime statistics, the most recent final state data available from the FBI.

Joining Nevada at the top of the rankings list (in descending order) were Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona, and Maryland. On the safer end of the rankings scale immediately preceding North Dakota were Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and Wyoming.

“Nevada is in a unique position as the nation’s fastest growing state and with that growth comes many challenges,” said Morgan. “However, the state seems to be moving in the right direction: its overall crime rate fell 2% from 2003 to 2004.”