Mission Viejo called nation's safest city; Lake Forest ranks 10th

The study was based on per-capita rates for violent crimes.

MISSION VIEJO A new, controversial study based on annual FBI crime statistics names Mission Viejo the safest city in the nation.

Following Mission Viejo was Lake Forest, ranked as 10th, and Irvine, ranked as 11th.

The 14th annual City Crime Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan American, released on Friday, looked at about 400 cities in the U.S. with at least 75,000 people. The study was based on per-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft.

"I haven't seen the study but it doesn't surprise me," said sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino. "I think it is a prime example of the community working well with the police."

The American Society of Criminology discounted the report calling it "an irresponsible misuse" of crime data.

In June, Irvine as labeled as America's safest city by the FBI's preliminary Uniform Crime Report, which was compiled with from more than 11,700 law enforcement agencies across the country.

City Crime Rankings was compiled by Kathleen O'Leary Morgan and Scott Morgan and published by CQ Press, a private research group that reviews crime data from the FBI.

The study assigns a crime score to each city, with zero representing the national average. Mission Viejo's score was minus 82, followed by cities in New York, New Jersey and Texas.

In the study, Detroit pushed past St. Louis to become the nation's most dangerous city. 

By ANNIE BURRIS THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER