According to the FBI, a city to city comparison of crime rates is not meaningful, because recording practices vary from city to city, citizens report different percentages of crimes from one city to the next, and the actual number of people physically present in a city is unknown. With that in mind, Dallass violent crime rate (12.06 per 1,000 people) is lower than St Louis (24.81), Detroit (24.22), Baltimore (16.96), Philadelphia (15.62), Cleveland (15.47), Miami (15.09), Washington, D.C.. (14.48), Kansas City, Missouri (14.44) and Boston (13.39). However, Houston (11.69), Los Angeles (7.87), and New York City (6.38) have lower violent crime rates than Dallas.. Which has a lower crime rate Houston or Dallas?