The crime rate in Pennington Gap is considerably higher than the national average across all communities in America from the largest to the smallest, although at 29 crimes per one thousand residents, it is not among the communities with the very highest crime rate. The chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime in Pennington Gap is 1 in 35. Based on FBI crime data, Pennington Gap is not one of the safest communities in America. Relative to Virginia, Pennington Gap has a crime rate that is higher than 89% of the state's cities and towns of all sizes.

Separately, it is always interesting and important to compare a town's crime rate with those of similarly sized communities - a fair comparison as larger cities tend to have more crime. NeighborhoodScout has done just that. With a population of 1,596, Pennington Gap has a combined rate of violent and property crime that is very high compared to other places of similar population size. Regardless of whether Pennington Gap does well or poorly compared to all other cities and towns in the US of all sizes, compared to places with a similar population, it fares badly. Few other communities of this size have a crime rate as high as Pennington Gap.

Now let us turn to take a look at how Pennington Gap 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 Pennington Gap.

From our analysis, we discovered that violent crime in Pennington Gap occurs at a rate higher than in most communities of all population sizes in America. The chance that a person will become a victim of a violent crime in Pennington Gap; such as armed robbery, aggravated assault, rape or murder; is 1 in 532. This equates to a rate of 2 per one thousand inhabitants.

In addition, NeighborhoodScout found that a lot of the crime that takes place in Pennington Gap is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In Pennington Gap, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 37, which is a rate of 27 per one thousand population.