Louisiana’s Best and Worst Cities for Crime

Louisiana is home to several major metro areas where crime rates are among the worst in the United States. In fact, of the metro areas in the state with available data, four rank among the top 25 for violent crime, and two (Lake Charles and Monroe) are in the top 10 for property crime. As in many states, crime rates in major cities are a key contributor to Louisiana’s high rates.

Notably, the Monroe metro area has the second-highest overall violent crime rate among the roughly 300 metros with available data, behind only the Memphis metropolitan area, which includes portions of Tennessee and Mississippi. But Monroe also ranks first overall for aggravated assault, seventh for property crime and third for burglary.

Louisiana metro area crime rates per 100,000 people (rank among 300+ metro areas)

Metro area	Violent crime (overall)	Murder/nonnegligent manslaughter	Rape	Robbery	Aggravated assault	Property crime (overall)	Burglary	Larceny-theft	Motor vehicle theft
Alexandria	912 (10th)	21 (7th)	71 (36th)	65 (71st)	756 (9th)	3,421 (16th)	780 (5th)	2,360 (17th)	282 (97th)
Baton Rouge	546 (52nd)	12 (33rd)	39 (197th)	64 (73rd)	431 (52nd)	3106 (27th)	643 (18th)	2,133 (29th)	330 (65th)
Hammond	687 (24th)	7 (92nd)	40 (188th)	39 (152nd)	601 (17th)	2,524 (71st)	426 (59th)	1,868 (60th)	230 (132nd)
Houma-Thibodaux	444 (91st)	13 (25th)	17 (304th)	31 (193rd)	383 (70th)	2,604 (61st)	415 (63rd)	2,036 (39th)	153 (214th)
Lake Charles	734 (18th)	10 (50th)	61 (68th)	40 (145th)	623 (15th)	3,815 (6th)	714 (10th)	2,773 (5th)	327 (67th)
Monroe	1,264 (2nd)	14 (19th)	46 (145th)	89 (32nd)	1,114 (1st)	3,769 (7th)	818 (3rd)	2,657 (8th)	294 (84th)
New Orleans-Metairie	654 (30th)	27 (5th)	49 (133rd)	112 (14th)	466 (41st)	2,707 (51st)	388 (81st)	1,851 (61st)	469 (26th)
Shreveport-Bossier City	619 (38th)	14 (19th)	60 (72nd)	75 (52nd)	470 (38th)	2,910 (33rd)	491 (36th)	2,131 (30th)	288 (94th)

Monroe proper, excluding the outlying communities that make up its greater metropolitan area, has the second-highest property crime rate in Louisiana. What town is first? Gonzales, where the property crime rate is more than three times higher than the overall U.S. rate. But whether crime is really that bad in Gonzales is up for debate, as the town, which is home to about 12,000 residents, is also home to the long-running Jambalaya Festival. The festival draws visitors from all over the area and could contribute to a higher-than-expected crime rate in the city.

Statewide Crime Trends for Louisiana

Property Crime in Louisiana

Louisiana is in the unenviable position of being one of just five states where both the property crime rate and the violent crime rate are among the top 10 in the country, and it’s one of only two (along with New Mexico) where both rates are in the top five.

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

The overall property crime rate in Louisiana is 2,748 per 100,000 people, which is 41 percent higher than the U.S. rate of 1,954 per 100,000 people.
Louisiana ranks fifth for property crime, behind Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington.
Larceny is the most common property crime in Louisiana (as it is everywhere else in the country), with about 1,940 incidents per 100,000 people:

Violent Crime in Louisiana

Violent crimes include murder/nonnegligent manslaughter, aggravated assault, rape and robbery. Although violent crimes are less common than property crimes in Louisiana, the state has one of the nation’s highest rates of these types of incidents.

The violent crime rate in Louisiana is 629 per 100,000 people, which is 65 percent higher than the overall national rate of 381 per 100,000 people.
Louisiana ranks fourth nationally for its violent crime rate, behind New Mexico, Alaska and Arkansas.
Aggravated assault is the most common type of violent crime in Louisiana, and the state has the nation’s highest murder rate.

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.