Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

consistently ranks above the national average in terms of crime, especially violent offenses. It has the highest violent crime rate of the Top 10 American cities with a population greater than 1 million residents as well as the highest poverty rate among these cities. It has been included in real estate analytics company NeighborhoodScout's "Top 100 Most Dangerous Cities in America" list every year since it has been compiled. Much of the crime is concentrated in the

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

, and

Southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west— ...

sections of the city. The deadliest year in Philadelphia was 2021 with 562 murders. The legal entities responsible for maintaining law and order are: *The

Philadelphia Police Department The Philadelphia Police Department (PPD, Philly PD, or Philly Police) is the police agency responsible for law enforcement and investigations within the County and City of Philadelphia. The PPD is one of the oldest municipal police agencies, f ...

(PPD) is the

police department The police are a constituted body of people empowered by a state with the aim of enforcing the law and protecting the public order as well as the public itself. This commonly includes ensuring the safety, health, and possessions of citize ...

. *The Court of Common Pleas of

Philadelphia County Philadelphia County is the most populous of the 67 counties of Pennsylvania and the 24th-most populous county in the nation. As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 1,603,797. It is coextensive with Philadelphia, the nation's ...

(1st Judicial Circuit) is the

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

trial court A trial court or court of first instance is a court having original jurisdiction, in which trials take place. Appeals from the decisions of trial courts are usually heard by higher courts with the power of appellate review (appellate courts). ...

. *The Philadelphia District Attorney is the

district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

. *The Defender Association of Philadelphia is the government-funded independent

public defender A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Belgium, Hungary and Si ...

office.

Notable cases and incidents

* Philadelphia Election Riot (1742) * Lombard Street Riot (1842) – Three-day race riot. *

Philadelphia Nativist Riots The Philadelphia nativist riots (also known as the Philadelphia Prayer Riots, the Bible Riots and the Native American Riots) were a series of riots that took place on May 68 and July 67, 1844, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States and the a ...

(1844) * The Schuylkill Rangers – (mid-1800s) criminal gang – see Jimmy Haggerty * Kidnapping of Charley Ross (1874). * Race riots in Philadelphia during the 1919 Red Summer (1919) - Incidents in May and July. 5 dead. *

Willie Sutton William Francis Sutton Jr. (June 30, 1901 – November 2, 1980) was an American bank robber. During his forty-year robbery career he stole an estimated $2 million, and he eventually spent more than half of his adult life in prison and escape ...

"The Robin Hood of Brooklyn" (1930–1950s) – Robbed most Philadelphia Banks, some twice, captured and tunneled out of

Eastern State Penitentiary The Eastern State Penitentiary (ESP) is a former American prison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is located in the Fairmount, Philadelphia, Fairmount section of the city, and was operational from 1829 until 1971. The penitentiary refined the r ...

was recaptured and sent to Holmesburg Prison which he subsequently escaped from by ladder. * Philadelphia Poison Ring (1938) – At least 70 people poisoned with arsenic, several by their wives. * Marie Noe (1949–1968) – Murdered eight of her children. * Joseph Augustus Zarelli (1957) – Four-year-old boy found dead in a cardboard box. *

Philadelphia 1964 race riot The Philadelphia race riot, or Columbia Avenue Riot, took place in the predominantly African Americans, black neighborhoods of North Philadelphia from August 28 to August 30, 1964. Tensions between black residents of the city and police had been ...

(1964) * Dolores Della Penna – 1972 abduction and dismemberment of Tacony teenager remains unsolved. *

Carl Gugasian Carl Gugasian (born October 12, 1947) is an American bank robber, known as "The Friday Night Bank Robber", who served a 17-year sentence for armed robbery. He is perhaps the most prolific of such criminals in US history, having robbed more than 50 ...

– "The Friday Night Bank Robber" (1972-2002) – Perhaps the most successful in American history – robbed banks up and down the east coast. * Joseph Kallinger – Schizophrenic Serial Murderer. (1974–75) *

Ira Einhorn Ira Samuel Einhorn (May 15, 1940 – April 3, 2020), known as "The Unicorn Killer", was an American environmental activist and murderer. His moniker, "the Unicorn", was derived from his surname; Einhorn means "unicorn" in German. As an envi ...

, "The Unicorn Killer" (1977) – Popular counterculture figure killed his girlfriend and hid her body in his closet. * Ed Savitz (1975–1992) – Sexual predator thought to have abused hundreds of teenage boys. *

Mumia Abu-Jamal Mumia Abu-Jamal (born Wesley Cook; April 24, 1954) is an American political activist and journalist who was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1982 for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Department, Philadelphia police officer C ...

(1981) – Convicted for the murder of PPD officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981. * Joseph Kindler – Serial burglar convicted of 1982 murder, sentenced to death, escaped prison twice, extradited from Canada. *

MOVE Move or The Move may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Move (company), an American online real estate company * Move (electronics store), a defunct Australian electronics retailer * Daihatsu Move, a Japanese car * PlayStation Move, a motion ...

(1978,1985) – Activist group which was harassed by the PPD, resulting in the police's purposeful destruction of 65 homes along with 11 deaths in Cobb's Creek neighborhood. *

Abscam Abscam, sometimes written ABSCAM, was a Federal Bureau of Investigation sting operation in the late 1970s and early 1980s that led to the convictions of seven members from both chambers of the United States Congress and others for bribery and co ...

- Several Philadelphia/Delaware valley politicians taken down in FBI investigation, videotaped accepting bribes from an Arabian company in exchange for political favors. * Frankford Slasher (1985–1990) – Thought to have killed several women. Never caught, though a prime suspect referred to only as 'The Minister' was known to police. * Gary M. Heidnik (1986–1987) – Kidnapped, imprisoned, raped, and tortured six women, two of whom he murdered. * Harrison Graham (1986–1987) – Killed seven women. * Raymond Carter (1988) – Convicted of killing Robert "Puppet" Harris; verdict overturned in 1996 due to likelihood of false testimony. * 39th District corruption scandal (1990s) – Police corruption which led to the overturning of 160–300 cases and release of 100 prisoners. * Eddie Polec murder case (1994) * Troy Graves "Center City Rapist" (1997–1999) – Committed five rapes and one murder * Lex Street Massacre (Dec. 28th, 2000) – 7 people were murdered in a crack house. * Murder of Jason Sweeney (2003) – 16 year old murdered by his friends for his paycheck. * City Hall corruption scandal (2003–05) – mayor's office bugged by FBI, several convictions resulting. * Tainted Justice- A group of officers from the police department's narcotics unit illegally raided homes and stores in inner city neighborhoods during drug investigations and engaged in illegal activity such as groping women, taking money from cash registers and knocking out store security cameras. * Kermit Gosnell (?–2010) – Abortion doctor convicted of killing newborns. * Earl Bradley (?–2010) – Pediatrician charged with hundreds of sex crimes against children. * Philadelphia basement kidnapping, October 2011, an ongoing investigation into alleged kidnapping of four mentally disabled adults, who were held in a Northeast Philadelphia basement. * 2019 Philadelphia Packer Marine Terminal cocaine seizure

Homicides

References:

Organized crime

* Black Mafia and Junior Black Mafia, an

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

crime group based in

West Philadelphia West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Although there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the n ...

K&A Gang The K&A Gang, or the Northeast Philly Irish Mob, is a predominantly Irish American criminal network based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The K&A Gang was started following World War II and controlled the city's Irish-American criminal underwo ...

, based in the

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

section of the city and one of the largest

Irish American Irish Americans () are Irish ethnics who live within in the United States, whether immigrants from Ireland or Americans with full or partial Irish ancestry. Irish immigration to the United States From the 17th century to the mid-19th c ...

gangs in the country *

Philadelphia crime family The Philadelphia crime family, also known as the Bruno–Scarfo crime family,< ...

, an Italian-American organized crime group in

South Philadelphia South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south, and the Schuylkill River to the west."." ''City of Philadelphia''. Retrieved November 8, ...

Atlantic City Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Atlantic City comprises the second half of the Atlantic City- Hammonton metropolitan sta ...

, and Newark; the largest

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

group in the city. *

Philadelphia Greek Mob The Philadelphia Greek Mob, also known as the Philadelphia Greek Mafia or the Net, was a loose-knit Greek mafia faction consisting of Greek-American racketeers and drug dealers operating in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The group was closely affil ...

* Warlocks Motorcycle Club, a

motorcycle club A motorcycle club is a group of individuals whose primary interest and activities involve motorcycles. A motorcycle group can range as clubbed groups of different bikes or bikers who own same model of vehicle like the Harley Owners Group. There ...

involved in drug dealing

Documentaries

* '' Law and Disorder in Philadelphia'', 2008 * '' The Fear of 13'', 2015

References

External links

Down With Crime
a project of ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Crime In Philadelphia