With crime levels in Atlanta remaining relatively constant when comparing the 2011 and 2012 reports, the city dropped three spots to ninth on our list. Atlanta had 6,027 violent crimes in 2012, almost 60 percent of which were aggravated assaults. Overall, the city experienced a slight reduction in its violent crime rate, which fell from 1,432 to 1,379 per 100,000 people. The downward trend continued with its 2012 murder rate, which reached its lowest level in the last 50 years. However, Atlanta has been in the news recently after the Justice Department questioned the city’s use of over $400,000 of federal grant money intended for reducing neighborhood crime. City officials also faced scrutiny regarding claims that many neighborhoods have experienced decreases in crime, with the watchdog journalists at Politifact concluding that such claims are false.