These are The Hawkeye State’s 25 Most Violent Cities [GALLERY]

What a tumultuous 2 years it's been and continues to be, as a worldwide pandemic has turned Americans on edge more than ever. In Eastern Iowa, a derecho changed our lives and stress levels. It seems like all we hear on the news are stories of rising costs of goods and services, job losses, and our freedoms feeling more under fire than ever. Police and public relations have taken a hit in the wake of high-profile deaths like that of George Floyd in Minnesota and the current trial of Kyle Rittenhouse gripping the nation. Iowa has not been exempt from the rise in violent crime, as statistics from the 2019 FBI report show.

What we find is that the larger cities in the state are the most violent, which is no surprise. Most of those cities are concentrated to the eastern portion of Iowa, and again do not take into account the rough statistics of the last two years. From the FBI website, their definition of violent crime in the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, is "composed of four offenses: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Violent crimes are defined in the UCR Program as those offenses that involve force or threat of force."

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We examined this information to see how many of these violent crimes were reported in Iowa and once we move past the obvious leaders at the top,  a few may be surprising.

[H/T: Carly Ross, Y105 FM, Rochester's Best Variety]