With a crime rate of 51 per one thousand residents, Winston-Salem 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 20. Within North Carolina, more than 95% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Winston-Salem. In fact, after researching dangerous places to live, NeighborhoodScout found Winston-Salem to be one of the top 100 most dangerous cities in the U.S.A.

Importantly, when you compare Winston-Salem to other communities of similar population, then Winston-Salem crime rate (violent and property crimes combined) is quite a bit higher than average. Regardless of how Winston-Salem 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 Winston-Salem 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 Winston-Salem.

For Winston-Salem, 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 Winston-Salem is one in 85.

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 Winston-Salem 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 Winston-Salem is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In Winston-Salem, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 25, which is a rate of 39 per one thousand population.

Importantly, we found that Winston-Salem 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 Winston-Salem is one in 272.