[dahfizz]

> Also, many small towns have higher crime rates per capita than cities.

Per capita crime rates do not matter. What matters is the question "How likely am I to be the victim of a crime if I live in area X?".

Depending on the type of crime, you are around 4x as likely to be the victim of a violent crime if you live in a city[1].

Per capita rates is a statistical curiosity. Being 4x more likely to be shot is what people actually care about. When the population density is 10 - 100x different, a small difference in per capita rates is meaningless.

[1] https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-...