Missouri: The Best and Worst Cities for Crime

Velda City, Missouri leads the nation in violent crime rates.
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Derek Prall
July 24, 2024 Derek Prall Derek Prall , Home Security Expert | July 24, 2024
Statewide Crime Trends in Missouri Property Crime in Missouri Violent Crime in Missouri

The picture of crime in Missouri is a challenging one. Not only does the state rank in the top 10 for both violent crime and property crime, but several Missouri communities lead the nation in crime.

Velda City, Missouri, an enclave of St. Louis, leads the country in violent crime with a rate more than 12 times higher than the overall U.S. rate — while two other St. Louis-area towns, Berkeley and Riverview, are second and third, respectively. A fourth St. Louis metro area community, Pagedale, ranks 17th of the 7,000-plus cities and towns with available data.

Missouri City Map

Indeed, Missouri’s position near the top of the list for crime rates is driven largely by its two primary metro areas: St. Louis and Kansas City. Among the cities and towns in the state with the 10 highest violent crime rates, five are in the St. Louis metro area, while Kansas City ranks seventh in the state.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are several villages and towns with very low crime rates. Lake Ozark, for example, has one of the lowest property crime rates in the state. It’s just five miles from Osage Beach, the setting of the hit Netflix show “Ozark,” which tells the story of organized criminals and drug dealers in the area. With less than 2,000 full-time residents, this beautiful lakeside community is a popular vacation destination. Oftentimes, tourist destinations tend to have higher property crime rates than towns, but Lake Ozark is an exception.

Property Crime in Missouri

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

  • Missouri’s total property crime rate per 100,000 people is 2,340, which is about 20 percent higher than the overall U.S. rate of 1,954 per 100,000.
  • The state ranks 10th for its property crime rate, which is also the highest in the Midwestern region.
  • Larceny is the most common property crime in Missouri, as it is everywhere else in the country. It has about 1,557 incidents per 100,000 people, and the state ranks seventh nationally for motor vehicle theft:

Missouri property crime rates

Violent Crime in Missouri

While violent crimes like murder, aggravated assault, rape, and robbery are much less common in Missouri (and everywhere else) than property crimes, Missouri does have some of the nation’s highest rates of such incidents.

  • Missouri’s overall violent crime rate is 488 per 100,000 residents, which is 28 percent higher than the national violent crime rate of 381 per 100,000.
  • Missouri ranks ninth among all the states for violent crimes and has the highest violent crime rate in the Midwest.
  • In addition to having the region’s highest overall crime rate, Missouri also ranks first in the Midwest for murder — a rate that puts it in sixth place nationally.

Missouri Violent Crime Rates

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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