Rockford is kind of a shit hole outside of the immediate downtown area. Hell, I went to NIU to I was only 30 miles or less away and I never heard anything on the news either, no one reports anything that happens there other than in the local papers/radio. Just that rape stat is reason enough to wonder what the **** is going on around there (almost 3x the national average).
That and it's the type of crimes that you hear about in certain places that makes me wonder from time to time (random violence as opposed to gang-associated for instance). The first winter I spent in Buffalo (15 on the list...lol) I heard about some lesbian chick getting stabbed in the eye by a teenage girl (who didn't know her) while coming out of a bar on new years eve...I mean, what the ****? Who does shit like that? You never hear about things that random in most places.
I am kind of surprised Philly is on there though. Outside of a few areas (the one around Temple U is pretty terrible [did an interview there when deciding on a grad school]) most of Philly is really decent.
