Benson, NC is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 113% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Benson, NC shows violent crime at 748.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,796.1 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 113% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade F from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
F safety grade
748.6/100K violent
2796.1/100K property
+113% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Benson, NC
Position in the state cohort
Benson reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable North Carolina cities
At 748.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Benson ranks 28 of 206 — above 178 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +184.1% against the cohort median of 263.5. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Comparable rate records
Benson's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Benson's 748.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Wilson's Mills (754.7), Charlotte-Mecklenburg (733.2), Rocky Mount (765.4), Pineville (723.7). These are same-year agency submissions that pass the same completeness screen, not a claim that the cities have identical conditions. They make the cohort position above checkable against named records instead of a generic state average.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 1076.3 per 100,000 in 2020 to 748.6 in 2024 (-30.5%). The highest observed value was 1110.9 in 2023 and the lowest 707.1 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 21.1% of the 161 Part I offenses reported in Benson for 2024, against a median of 11.4% across comparable North Carolina cities — a gap of 9.7 points. Offense mix is shaped by which agencies report and how incidents are classified as well as by the underlying offenses, so it describes the reported record rather than a settled difference in conditions.
Property counts dominate Benson's FBI UCR Table 8 municipal row. Per-100,000 rates use the reporting-year population on that row; cities that fail the completeness test stay out of rate rankings. A citywide figure rarely describes any single neighbourhood inside the municipal boundary.
Small-city offense counts above are voluntary UCR submissions, not neighbourhood advice. Year-to-year swings can look large when the population base is modest.
Benson's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 3 Census sq mi, Benson logged 42.5 property and 11.4 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Benson's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (60% of 161 offenses; mix index 4,254).
Violent offenses are 21% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (3 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-32.6%
1110.9 → 748.6/100K
Property Crime Rate
-11.9%
3173.9 → 2796.1/100K
Property offenses lead Benson's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
127
2796.1
1711
Larceny-Theft
97
2135.6
-
Burglary
25
550.4
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
5
110.1
-
Arson
1
22
-
Violent Crime
34
748.6
352
Aggravated Assault
31
682.5
-
Rape
2
44
-
Robbery
1
22
-
Murder
0
0
-
Benson Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Benson property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averagesRead the chart as a list
Benson: 749 violent, 2796 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Raeford: 110 violent, 1432 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Newport: 287 violent, 1455 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Farmville: 1377 violent, 2098 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Ahoskie: 699 violent, 4061 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Edenton: 378 violent, 1913 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Southport: 89 violent, 1068 property per 100,000 (grade A)
China Grove: 152 violent, 1106 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Whiteville: 537 violent, 7972 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Benson Police Department
Reporting agency for Benson NIBRS-participating
Benson Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Benson's 161 reported offenses (5-year span 2020-2024).
This agency reports via NIBRS, the incident-based system that captures more detail per offense (multiple crimes per incident, victim/offender data) than the older summary counts.
Similar-Size Cities in North Carolina
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the North Carolina cities closest to Benson in population. Their populations run from 4,494 to 4,654, against 4,542 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Benson reported 34 violent crimes and 127 property crimes, for a total of 161 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Benson?
From 2023 to 2024, Benson's violent crime rate decreased by 32.6%, and the property crime rate decreased by 11.9%.
What is the most common crime in Benson?
The most common crime type in Benson is larceny-theft, accounting for 60.2% of all reported crimes (97 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Benson is sourced from FBI UCR Table 8 for 2024; rates use that row's population.
Small-city rows use the same per-100,000 formula; a few unreported years can leave gaps in the trend table. Verify the agency's submission on FBI.gov UCR.
Disclaimer (small city): UCR counts here are informational only. They are not a victimization probability. Source: FBI UCR Program.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Benson, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.