Why Are Gritty Settings So Popular in Crime Fiction?

I've been thinking a lot about my choice of the settings in my novels. Since I write a lot of crime fiction with a hardboiled or noirish bent, I gravitate to the grittier settings. My early novels likeThe Blue Cheer and Pelham Fell Here were based in rural areas of West Virginia and Virginia, respectively. My last novel using a rural setting was Lake Charles set in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. My later novels like The Zinc Zoo and Ask The Dice are centered in the suburbs (often blue collar).

I don't know if there's any striking reason except the crime fiction genre just seems better suited for the grittier settings. I moved from the rural to suburban settings in my novels. A city has a lot of dark, rough neighborhoods to choose from to create different scenes. One classic pulp fiction writer who had an early influence me is Bruno Fischer. He wrote of the not-so-placid suburbs in his fine novels like The Evil Days.

One of my unpublished novels titled THE BAG MAN'S HOLIDAY is set in a fictitious small city in Florida. I've spent some time in the Sunshine State which has drawn its share of crime novelists, past and present. The hot, muggy climate goes along well for creating a cauldron for the criminals to pursue their evil aims and pleasures.