The estimated average crime rate in Gotham City
Estimating the average crime rate in Gotham City is a difficult task, given the lack of municipally published statistics. However, the fact the city does not publish statistics is further evidence to the astronomical crime rate, as a city with a rate closer to the national average would not hesitate in publishing such statistics. This article will not cover other urban issues such as massive fires and large scale disaster (OMACS, IC, FC), as they are not directly crime related, though they are surprisingly common.
Background: Gotham is a dangerous place with enormous levels petty crime, gang violence, and dangerous supervillians such as: the Joker, Two-Face (usually), Killer Croc, Bane, The Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Mr Zsasz, Mr Freeze, The Mad Hatter, Clayface and numerous others (Loeb, Sale 1997). This is enough to support at least three costumed heros at any time, with those heroes normally being Batman, Robin and Nightwing, but occasionally others as well. These heroes carry out nightly patrols, and it always lead to at least one crime. The one recorded incident of patrols proving uneventful was due to outside interference (CHRISTMAS SPECIAL), and that lead to a great amount of surprise among the patrolling heros, leading to the conclusion that they always stop, or attempt to stop at least one crime per night per hero.
Finding crime: Three crimes requiring superheroic intervention in a major city in one night may at first glance appear to be a trivial amount of criminal activity. However, due to the generally short temporal nature of criminal acts, and the logistic issues of first detecting the crime and subsequently arriving in time to stop it, being in a position to attempt to stop even one crime in a night is a difficult feat. Even hearing about it on a police scanner will be unlikely to help much, as all but the nearest or longest lasting criminal acts will be completed before the hero can arrive. It can be assumed that most crime is detected either through hearing a woman screaming, or by the gunshots. However, both of these sounds only carry for a limited distance. If we assume that a woman can scream no louder than a gunshot which should hold true in most cases, then the average maximum decibel level experienced in a crime is approximately 140dB. In flat, echo-less areas a sound that loud will take about 1550 metres (0.96 miles) to dissipate to 70 decibels, which is the noise level of a busy street. Given Gotham City's constant night life, and many freestanding buildings, the area where crimes can be audibly detected is much likely to be smaller, and 1550 metres is likely overestimating the hero's range. These figures are also assuming the hero can cover nearly a mile, in a matter of seconds to avert the crime in question. This leads to the conclusion that, if a hero has a range of approximately one square mile, and stops at least one crime in a night, that there is a minimum of one crime requiring superheroic assistance per night, per square mile.
Gang wars: It can be assumed that the period between Identity Crisis and the present is approximately two years, based on current evidence (OYL and?). In this time, there have at least two major gang wars with crime rates even higher than normal, the first known formally as War Games which was sources state was accidently started by the hero Spoiler who is presumed to be deceased. The second major war after the Batman appeared to be killed in a helicopter crash, and is currently still underway (Morrison, 2009).
Looking at all this evidence, there are two major conclusions to be drawn. The firs is that Gotham City has an exceedingly high crime rate and to avoid being victimized you must stay indoors after dark at all times. The second important conclusion is that if you are a criminal, carry out your criminal activities during the daylight hours.
