Houston in the sixties and seventies paralleled New Orleans' homicide rates. Then in the mid eighties, while New Orleans' homicide rates skyrocketed, Houston's murder rate began to look a lot more like New York City's. Information cities are among those in the US with the steepest drops in homicide. New Orleans' homicide rate in the early 1990s was higher than Rio de Janiero's and as violent as any city outside of Colombia.

Key New Orleans in purple, Houston in brown, and New York City in yellow.