Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Days after St. Louis beat Detroit in the baseball World Series, the city again edged its rival, this time for the unwanted title of most dangerous city in the U.S.

The league of shame was based on FBI crime figures for 2005 in the six categories of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft. Lawrence, Kansas-based research company Morgan Quitno Press compiled the results in its 13th annual list of the U.S.'s most dangerous and safest cities.

``There is some good news,'' Morgan Quitno President Scott Morgan said in an e-mailed statement today. ``St. Louis's property crime rate has fallen 14 percent since 2001.''

St. Louis was the third-most dangerous city in last year's rankings and replaced Camden, New Jersey, this year as the worst of the 371 cities on the list. Detroit was judged the second-most dangerous city and Flint, Michigan, was third. Washington was 19th, Los Angeles was 122nd and New York was 227th.

The safest city in the U.S. was Brick, New Jersey, followed by Amherst, New York, and Mission Viejo, California. Brick has ranked as one of the top five safest U.S. cities in each of the past six years.

The Midwest experienced the steepest increase in violent crime, 5.7 percent, in the U.S. in 2005, according to FBI figures released in June. The murder rate in St. Louis jumped 16 percent compared to 4.8 percent nationally.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nick Allen in London at nallen14@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 30, 2006 06:02 EST