Crime and Justice  
Crime Scorecard: Property and Violent Crime Rates Among Top U.S. Cities

By Joshua Berry
August 17, 2010

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Baltimore holds the dubious distinction of highest murder rate among the nation's 50 most populous cities, while Oakland has the highest rate motor vehicle thefts. And in New York, the nation's most populous city, property and violent crime rates were well below average for all of the offenses tracked by the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report.

Use the table and interactive graph below to explore violent crime and property crime rates per 100,000 residents for the 50 most populous U.S. cities, as reported in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's 2008 Uniform Crime Report.

Select the column headers to sort the table by each type of crime. Click a city's name to display a graph showing percent differences from the average for the 50 most populous U.S. cities. (Note: White-striped bars indicate greater than 100 percent of the 50-city average.)


Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C.  | Pop. 758,769
Murder
Rape
Robbery
Assault
Burglary
Larceny
Vehicle

Violent and Property Crimes, Top U.S. Cities

» Rates of Crime per 100,000 People.

  City Population Murder Rape Assault Robbery Burglary Larceny Vehicle
1 Albuquerque 527,464 7 70 256 561 1180 4000 886
2 Arlington 375,836 6 38 185 374 1187 3762 412
3 Atlanta 533,016 20 24 621 725 1874 4221 1218
4 Austin 753,535 3 36 177 306 1139 4457 349
5 Baltimore 634,549 37 22 634 896 1234 2715 868
6 Boston 604,465 10 39 397 658 578 2735 398
7 Charlotte-Mecklenburg 758,769 11 36 393 492 1573 3919 694
8 Chicago 2,829,304 18 na 589 602 920 3041 670
9 Cleveland 433,452 24 98 878 430 2100 2465 1219
10 Colorado Springs 378,403 6 89 137 297 899 3050 297
11 Columbus 751,887 14 82 477 200 1956 3759 706
12 Dallas 1,276,214 13 39 507 336 1657 3322 957
13 Denver 592,881 7 48 160 352 873 1779 607
14 Detroit 905,783 34 36 675 1179 1967 2080 1815
15 El Paso 612,374 3 30 74 355 339 2428 450
16 Fort Worth 701,345 7 50 243 356 1286 3360 391
17 Fresno 475,723 8 17 207 353 877 2965 794
18 Honolulu 906,349 2 22 102 157 703 2369 434
19 Houston 2,238,895 13 33 474 587 1204 3064 680
20 Indianapolis 808,329 14 59 498 634 1765 3522 797
21 Jacksonville 806,080 14 33 364 585 1490 3741 500
22 Kansas City 451,454 25 55 463 845 1654 3647 963
23 Las Vegas 1,353,175 9 54 364 557 1101 1985 843
24 Long Beach 467,055 9 26 318 324 659 1507 615
25 Los Angeles 3,850,920 10 25 349 306 512 1518 587
26 Lousiville 629,679 11 35 280 358 1156 3100 416
27 Memphis 672,046 21 54 712 1138 2362 4843 806
28 Mesa 672,046 4 35 144 319 627 2759 448
29 Miami 427,740 15 10 565 746 1155 3177 857
30 Milwaukee 602,131 12 35 533 640 1064 3922 1086
31 Minneapolis 376,753 10 97 532 629 1484 3391 640
32 Nashville 602,181 13 50 396 937 1051 3946 375
33 New York 8,345,075 6 11 266 298 238 1410 149
34 Oakland 401,587 29 84 827 1028 1118 2220 2013
35 Oklahoma City 552,452 10 58 276 634 1670 3519 706
36 Omaha 437,238 10 41 217 337 726 2949 623
37 Philadelphia 1,441,117 23 72 667 679 891 2823 629
38 Phoenix 1,585,838 11 30 304 315 1184 3070 960
39 Portland 553,023 5 45 205 368 779 3905 604
40 Raleigh 388,661 9 24 264 281 796 2361 244
41 Sacramento 467,065 10 36 377 574 1117 2649 1051
42 San Antonio 1,351,244 9 31 203 475 1399 5229 592
43 San Diego 1,271,655 4 30 159 283 609 1726 840
44 San Fransisco 798,144 12 21 515 297 677 3150 721
45 San Jose 945,197 3 23 119 240 366 1440 553
46 Seattle 598,077 5 21 270 281 1087 3786 614
47 Tucson 528,917 12 47 274 471 na 1098 60
48 Tulsa 382,954 13 66 286 920 1756 3589 600
49 Virginia Beach 434,163 3 17 124 97 442 2314 148
50 Washington, D.C. 591,833 31 31 702 610 639 3174 1046
51 Top 50 Cities 48,868,848 11 32 369 461 930 2,671 614

Definitions:

Murder: The willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another. Murder is labeled "murder and non-negligent homicide" in the UCR.

Rape: Any act of sexual intercourse that is forced upon a person against their will. Attempts or assaults to commit rape by force or threat of force are also included; however, statutory rape (without force) and other sex offenses are excluded. Rape is labeled "forcible rape" in the UCR.

Robbery: The taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear.

Assault: The unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury. The UCR Program further specifies that this type of assault is usually accompanied by the use of a weapon or by other means likely to produce death or great bodily harm. Attempted aggravated assault that involves the display of--or threat to use--a gun, knife, or other weapon is included in this crime category because serious personal injury would likely result if the assault were completed. When aggravated assault and larceny-theft occur together, the offense falls under the category of robbery. Assault is labeled "aggravated assault" in the UCR.

Burglary: The unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft. To classify an offense as a burglary, the use of force to gain entry need not have occurred. The UCR Program has three sub classifications for burglary: forcible entry, unlawful entry where no force is used, and attempted forcible entry. The UCR definition of "structure" includes apartment, barn, house trailer or houseboat when used as a permanent dwelling, office, railroad car (but not automobile), stable, and vessel (i.e., ship).

Larceny: The unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another. Examples are thefts of bicycles, motor vehicle parts and accessories, shoplifting, pocket-picking, or the stealing of any property or article that is not taken by force and violence or by fraud. Attempted larcenies are included. Embezzlement, confidence games, forgery, check fraud, etc., are excluded. Larceny is labeled "larceny-theft" in the UCR.

Vehicle Theft: The theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle. In the UCR Program, a motor vehicle is a self-propelled vehicle that runs on land surfaces and not on rails. Examples of motor vehicles include sport utility vehicles, automobiles, trucks, buses, motorcycles, motor scooters, all-terrain vehicles, and snowmobiles. Motor vehicle theft does not include farm equipment, bulldozers, airplanes, construction equipment, or water craft such as motorboats, sailboats, houseboats, or jet skis. The taking of a motor vehicle for temporary use by persons having lawful access is excluded from this definition. Vehicle theft is labeled "motor vehicle theft" in the UCR.

Definitions are from the 2008 UCR.

Detailed information on the data collection and compilation procedures used by the FBI is available at the Uniform Crime Report website.

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