I am probably moving to DC and would like to map the dangerous areas (especially downtown).?

While looking for apartments in DC the website had a safety map and the number of sex offenders in the area was astounding. I actually mapped dangerous areas in Miami , gang territory in California and Boston in order to compare. In these areas you averaged 0-1 offender per quarter mile radius while DC has 6-7! The others looked like a few darts were scattered around a board while DC looked like a dart factory exploded! I am really concerned and would like any information please.

if you want a safe place to live and can deal with the suburbs
try the northern Virginia Reston it has buses to metro lines so it is really easy for commuter

ashburn surprisingly is good for commuters as well because it opens right on to the toll road

Here's a more useful map: murders in DC: http://burgersub.org/murders2k7.htm

You asked about downtown - it's generally fine, but there is very little housing, and what is there is new and expensive.

VERY broadly, most of northwest DC is safe. Historically, the "dividing line" (in many senses) was 16th St NW, but gentrification has pushed that east - Shaw, which is the area around 7th St, is now ground zero of gentrification.

There are many safe areas in northeast (such as Brookland), and Capitol Hill (southeast and northeast of the Capitol) is generally nice as well, but the further east you get, the more dangerous it gets. But again, gentrification is pushing east, to around 15th or 17th Sts (NE and SE).

An easy way to get a sense of a specific neighborhood is to look at the blogs (many neighborhood blogs are linked to from dcist.com - go to the pulldown menu at bottom left and scroll to "neighborhoods"). You could also email people who write the blogs.

Once you're seriously considering a place, you can contact the Advisory Neighborhood Commission representative for the area. ANC reps are part-time volunteer elected officials who serve as liasons with the government. See http://anc.dc.gov/anc/site/default.asp

Welcome to DC - it's a wonderful place.

Be careful about on-line reporting and so forth; the data can be incorrect. Even data collected by governments can have its problems - and that's usually pretty good. It also depends on how the city wants to classify crimes/offenders.

Downtown is pretty safe. If you are in the NW, you are relatively safe. South of the capital isn't the best.

Downtown, meaning everything from Dupont to Georgetown is safe. If safety from crime is a large concern, and you want to live in the District, I'd recommend staying West of 16th St NW, or the Capitol Hill Area between the Capitol and Eastern Market.

Penn Quarter, near the MCI center, roughly 9th-5th and south of Massachusetts is quite safe too.

If you're familiar with urban life, there are other areas further east of 16th that are still comfortably safe, but you just have to be more careful. I live in Brookland, which was mentioned by one of the other respondents, which I feel is safe, but I wouldn't recommend it to someone new to urban living. There are even OK areas east of the Anacostia river, but unless you know what you're doing, I'd recommend against even looking over there.

Like any city, there is going to be crime and criminals throughout the city. Generally speaking, like any city, the higher the rent, the safer the area.

These links might be of interest to you:

http://crimemap.dc.gov/presentation/intr...

http://www.crimeindc.org/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

http://www.everyaptmapped.com/

Good luck!

The area around Howard University is the worst. In fact, for some reason it seems like all of the areas served by the Green Line are pretty bad.

In my experience most cities have area that dangerous but DC tends to have pockets or certain blocks. It took awhile to me to figure out which blocks I could go to and which I shouldn't.

I love living in Capital Hill but be careful you generally should be close to the capital--address with low numbers and letters.

Stay away from the south east area!