Crime rates for Charleston, WV

About Charleston crime rates

With a crime rate of 72 per one thousand residents, Charleston 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 14. Within West Virginia, more than 97% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Charleston.In fact, after researching dangerous places to live, NeighborhoodScout found Charleston to be one of the top 100 most dangerous cities in the U.S.A.

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 51,177, Charleston has a combined rate of violent and property crime that is very high compared to other places of similar population size. Regardless of whether Charleston 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 Charleston.

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 Charleston 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 Charleston.

For Charleston, we found that the violent crime rate is one of the highest in the nation, across communities of all sizes (both large and small). Violent offenses tracked included forcible rape, murder and non-negligent manslaughter, armed robbery, and aggravated assault, including assault with a deadly weapon. According to NeighborhoodScout's analysis of FBI reported crime data, your chance of becoming a victim of one of these crimes in Charleston is one in 98.

Significantly, based on the number of murders reported by the FBI and the number of residents living in the city, NeighborhoodScout's analysis shows that Charleston experiences one of the higher murder rates in the nation when compared with cities and towns for all sizes of population, from the largest to the smallest.

In addition, NeighborhoodScout found that a lot of the crime that takes place in Charleston is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In Charleston, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 16, which is a rate of 62 per one thousand population.

Importantly, we found that Charleston has one of the highest rates of motor vehicle theft in the nation according to our analysis of FBI crime data. This is compared to communities of all sizes, from the smallest to the largest. In fact, your chance of getting your car stolen if you live in Charleston is one in 337.