MOTOR CITY CALLED 'MOST DANGEROUS'

In another blow to the Motor City's tarnished image, Detroit pushed past

St. Louis to become the nation's most dangerous city, according to a private

research group's controversial analysis, released Sunday, of annual FBI crime

statistics.

The study drew harsh criticism even before it came out. The American

Society of Criminology launched a pre-emptive strike Friday, issuing a

statement attacking it as ''an irresponsible misuse'' of crime data.

The 14th annual ''City Crime Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan America'' was

published by CQ Press, a unit of Congressional Quarterly Inc. It is based on

the FBI's Sept. 24 crime statistics report.

The report looked at 378 cities with at least 75,000 people based on

per-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and

auto theft. Each crime category was considered separately and weighted based

on its seriousness, CQ Press said.

Last year's crime leader, St. Louis, fell to No. 2. Another Michigan city,

Flint, ranked third, followed by Oakland; Camden, N.J.; Birmingham, Ala.;

North Charleston, S.C.; Memphis, Tenn.; Richmond; and Cleveland.

The study ranked Mission Viejo as the safest U.S. city, followed by

Clarkstown, N.Y.; Brick Township, N.J.; Amherst, N.Y.; and Sugar Land, Texas.

Santa Rosa ranked No. 228, while San Francisco was No. 99.

The study assigns a crime score to each city, with zero representing the

national average. Detroit got a score of 407, while St. Louis followed at 406.

The score for Mission Viejo, in affluent Orange County, was minus 82.

-- Associated Press