Crime rates for Salem, OR

With a crime rate of 79 per one thousand residents, Salem has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One's chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 13. Within Oregon, more than 90% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Salem.

Separately, it is always interesting and important to compare a city's crime rate with those of similarly sized communities - a fair comparison as larger cities tend to have more crime. NeighborhoodScout has done just that. With a population of 136,694, Salem has a combined rate of violent and property crime that is very high compared to other places of similar population size. Regardless of whether Salem does well or poorly compared to all other cities and towns in the US of all sizes, compared to places with a similar population, it fares badly. Few other communities of this size have a crime rate as high as Salem.

The crime data that NeighborhoodScout used for this analysis are the seven offenses from the uniform crime reports, collected by the FBI from 17,000 local law enforcement agencies, and include both violent and property crimes, combined.

Now let us turn to take a look at how Salem does for violent crimes specifically, and then how it does for property crimes. This is important because the overall crime rate can be further illuminated by understanding if violent crime or property crimes (or both) are the major contributors to the general rate of crime in Salem.

From our analysis, we discovered that violent crime in Salem occurs at a rate higher than in most communities of all population sizes in America. The chance that a person will become a victim of a violent crime in Salem – such as armed robbery, aggravated assault, rape or murder – is 1 in 179. This equates to a rate of 6 per one thousand inhabitants.

In addition, NeighborhoodScout found that a lot of the crime that takes place in Salem is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In Salem, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 14, which is a rate of 73 per one thousand population.