According to the article, “Data from the Lewiston Police Department show gun violence over the last six years has [taken] a dramatic upturn.”
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How does Lewiston compare with other similar size cities and towns around the country?
To use a basis of comparison from another topic, and looking at homicide rates specifically, per capita cases are greater for Lewiston in some years than those for New York City. For example, in 2018, the most recent year for which this site reported FBI data, per capita rates for homicides in Lewiston were 60% greater than those for New York City:
Lewiston ME Murder/Homicide Rate 2000-2018 | MacroTrends Lewiston ME Murder/Homicide Rate 2000-2018 | MacroTrends
New York NY Murder/Homicide Rate 1999-2018 | MacroTrends New York NY Murder/Homicide Rate 1999-2018 | MacroTrends
Come on. I’ve already posted in that topic why a per capital comparison of NYC and Lewiston is not valid.
My question was with regard to other towns and cities of the same size.
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I think it’s unfair to diminish Bates. Your thoughts on the subject are now well known - but no need to continue. People like Bates - just like others like other schools.
It’s fine.
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Lewiston’s small population (about 37,000) is why its homicide rates per 100,000 come in multiples of about 2.7 (i.e. 1 homicide per 37,000 is approximately 2.7 homicides per 100,000).
If you look at the 10 years from 2009 to 2018, it looks like there were 9 homicides, which averages out to be 0.9 yearly, or about 2.4 per 100,000 yearly.
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Per capita comparisons represent the only valid form of comparison if statistical significance can be achieved. I reintroduced New York City here because a question had been asked about the source of information in the prior topic. I avoided the exceptional year of 2023, when the per capita homicide rate in Lewiston was ~3,800% greater than that of New York due to the mass shooting. In any case, the Sun Journal article is about recent trends in gun violence, which appear to have increased from prior levels.
Information is either true or false, of interest to people or not. Regarding Bates itself, I’ve recommended the school on CC at least dozens of times. I respect Bates’ history and I respect it now. I’ve no problem with Lewiston, either, for that matter. The recent increase in gun violence there may be of concern to some, however.
Did you not read my post on the other thread? Per capital comparison is absolutely not a valid comparison. I will re-explain if you didn’t read the last one.
Again, my question was about how Lewiston compares with other towns or cities of comparable size.
Do you know what percent of those incidents of gun violence were suicides or domestic disputes vs street violence? Either of the former are not a threat to anyone walking the streets, which is what is relevant when talking about the safety if college students.
Information can also be misrepresented, misinterpreted, and manipulated. I’m not suggesting that you personally are doing that but data is not just a true/false dichotomy.
As an example, Purdue had two murders in 2022, both actually ON campus, in the same year. One students was murdered in his dorm by his roommate having a psychotic break. Not gun violence but the result was still murder. The other was a targeted shooting.
Yet, Purdue is on almost all the lists for having the safest college community. On this list particular list they were actually #1 for the safest campus. The 15 Safest Colleges in America | Academic Influence
If you look through Purdue’s Clery report, it’s actually pretty chilling (especially from a parent’s perspective) but it’s nothing compared to the reports for schools that are high on the list for unsafest campuses in the US.
Do I think parents and students should consider safety when deciding on colleges? Yes I do. Does context matter? Yes it does!
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I think it’s important to put the gun violence in Lewiston in perspective. The type of gun violence matters if we’re talking about the safety of college students. I can’t find data for Lewiston specifically, but in the entire state of Maine, 166 people die of gunshots annually and 126 are wounded. Of those who are killed, 89% are suicides and 8% are homicides. This compares to 57% and 40% nationally. In 2023, for example, Maine ranked 17th nationally in gun suicide rate.
Obviously suicides and other incidents of domestic violence involving guns are not a threat to college students. When assessing the safety of college students in a town or city, it’s important to look past the raw numbers of gun violence incidents.
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Not a specific threat to college students, but college students can be vulnerable to those causes of death for other reasons.
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Good point. College students are definitely in an age group that is at risk of suicide, but that is not a threat from the community. There is a strong correlation between suicide rates and lack of gun regulation, which would apply to any state where gun regulation is lax.
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For some reason, for the many years I’ve lived in Maine Lewiston has been known as the town that attracts drug dealers and unsavory characters. I don’t know why. It’s similar to a lot of other old mill towns in the state.
Maine certainly does have a problem with suicides. That’s why it was so upsetting when the state of Maine cut NAMI Maine’s funding for suicide prevention by 2/3. It’s put the agency in a very tenuous financial situation. 
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Sadly, this country is awash in guns. What are we supposed to conclude from this article? That nowhere is isolated enough, or far enough from non-students to be safe for college attendance? That’s absurd.
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This is impossible since I have not formed a well-developed opinion on this topic. A thread such as this represents a beginning of an inquiry, through which I am interested, as I would hope others would be as well, in any intelligent comments that people may be willing to contribute. I’d be unlikely to defer to others on statistical analysis, however, other than to make clear that what I have posted, while true to the most reliable sources I could find, may not have demonstrated statistical significance or practical relevance — a claim that was not made in any case.
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