With a crime rate of 39 per one thousand residents, South Bend 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 26. Within Indiana, more than 98% of the communities have a lower crime rate than South Bend. In fact, after researching dangerous places to live, NeighborhoodScout found South Bend to be one of the top 100 most dangerous cities in the U.S.A.

Importantly, when you compare South Bend to other communities of similar population, then South Bend crime rate (violent and property crimes combined) is quite a bit higher than average. Regardless of how South Bend does relative to all communities in America of all sizes, when NeighborhoodScout compared it to communities of similar population size, its crime rate per thousand residents stands out as higher than most.

Now let us turn to take a look at how South Bend 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 South Bend.

For South Bend, 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 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 South Bend is one in 83.

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 South Bend 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 South Bend is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In South Bend, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 38, which is a rate of 26 per one thousand population.

Importantly, we found that South Bend 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 South Bend is one in 225.