Morgan Quitno Press is a research and publishing company founded in 1989 and based in Lawrence, Kansas.
In October 2007 the American Society of Criminology, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation asked the publisher to reconsider promotion of the book – specifically, "their inaccurate and inflammatory press release labeling cities as 'safest' and 'most dangerous'" – because the rankings are "baseless and damaging."
The resolution states, These rankings represent an irresponsible misuse of the data and do groundless harm to many communities [and] work against a key goal of our society, which is a better understanding of crime-related issues by both scientists and the public.
In addition, it noted specific flaws in the methodology, for instance, its weighting of murder as the same as auto theft.
Metro area, rather than city, rankings include all suburbs for all MSAs, and therefore could be considered more valid.