15. West Memphis, Arkansas
Located directly across the Mississippi River from Memphis, Tennessee, West Memphis, Arkansas is considered a part of the Memphis metropolitan area despite it belonging to another state. It is strategically positioned as a distribution hub for goods as it lies at the point where Interstates 40 and 55 intersect the Mississippi River. Despite this, jobs are hard to come by, with almost a third of its population living under the poverty line. 6 out of 100 people remain jobless in the city, a reason why crime rates, particularly that of the violent kind, soar above the US average.
In 2017, 1,779 incidents of violent crime were recorded per 100,000 residents, a figure almost 4 times that of the national average.
