Alabama: The Best and Worst Cities for Crime

Alabama’s property crime rate is well below the national average, but the state ranked 18th for its high rate of violent crimes.
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Derek Prall
July 22, 2024 Derek Prall Derek Prall , Home Security Expert | July 22, 2024
Statewide Crime Trends in Alabama Property Crime in Alabama Violent Crime in Alabama

Columbiana, a town of about 5,000 people, has the highest property crime rate in Alabama (more than 12,000 per 100,000 people) and the 13th highest of any city in the U.S. Similarly, Tarrant, Alabama, home to just over 6,000 people, has the state’s highest violent crime rate and ranks 11th among all cities in the U.S.

In addition to its small size, Tarrant likely also finds itself near the top of the list because it’s home to a major coal-production factory, ABC Coke. The factory produces more than 700,000 tons of foundry coke per year and draws hundreds of visitors to the city, from factory workers to those who operate businesses around the plant.

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Among major metro areas in Alabama, Mobile has the highest overall rates of both violent crimes and property crimes, while Daphne has the lowest.

Given their larger size, crimes are, of course, more common in larger cities. That doesn’t always mean smaller cities always have low crime rates. In fact, many small cities in Alabama have troublingly high crime rates, though that likely has more to do with their small size than their relative safety.

Property Crime in Alabama

When determining property crime rates in Alabama, we looked at larceny-theft, burglary, and motor vehicle theft incidents.

  • Alabama’s total property crime rate per 100,000 people is 1,739, which is 11 percent less than the average U.S. rate of 1,954 per 100,000. This puts the state at 27th among the 50 states for property crime.
  • Larceny continues to be the most common property crime in Alabama, as it is everywhere else in the country, with about 1,253 incidents per 100,000 people.

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Violent Crime in Alabama

Violent crimes include murder/non-negligent manslaughter, aggravated assault, rape, and robbery.

  • Alabama’s total violent crime rate is 409 per 100,000 people, which is about 7 percent higher than the U.S. rate of 381 per 100,000. This puts the state in 18th place.
  • Due to changes in how law enforcement agencies are gathering and reporting crime data, comparing specific rates from previous years is not possible. But it’s worth noting that Alabama has a considerably lower rate of violent crime than neighboring Louisiana (which ranks fourth nationally). Alabama is also lower than other states in the Southern region of the U.S., including Arkansas (third nationally), Tennessee (fifth nationally), and South Carolina (eighth nationally).
  • The only violent crime type in which Alabama’s rate is higher than the average Southern state is aggravated assault. Here, too, Alabama’s rate is not the highest within the South.

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Our data

Our data comes from comprehensive reporting compiled by the FBI and accessed via the Crime Data Explorer website. Property and violent crime state figures were drawn from Table 5 of the 2022 Crime in the U.S. Report. Metropolitan figures were found in Table 6, Crime in the U.S. by Metropolitan Statistical Area. City-level figures were drawn from Table 8, Offenses Known to Law Enforcement by State by City. The population figures in that table are U.S. Census Bureau provisional estimates as of July 1, 2020.

Limitations: According to the FBI, the data in the publication tables may differ from those released on the Explorer Pages of the CDE. These variations are due to the difference in methodologies between the publication tables and data displayed on the CDE. Please note that crime statistics are not the sole measure of a city’s safety.

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