Benton Harbor, MI is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 432% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Benton Harbor, MI shows violent crime at 1,874.1 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 5,497.5 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 432% 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
1874.1/100K violent
5497.5/100K property
+432% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Benton Harbor, MI
Position in the state cohort
Benton Harbor reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Michigan cities
At 1874.1 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Benton Harbor ranks 5 of 366 — above 361 of the 365 other Michigan cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +902.4% against the cohort median of 187.0. 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
Benton Harbor's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Michigan cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Benton Harbor's 1874.1 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Benton Township (1880.3), Detroit (1781.3), Vassar (1971.7), Saginaw (2201.5). 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.
Property-offense composition
Burglary and vehicle theft carry more of the property total than they do across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 57.4% of reported property offenses in Benton Harbor, against a cohort median of 79.7%. The remainder is burglary (72) and motor vehicle theft (134). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 2482.0 per 100,000 in 2020 to 1874.1 in 2024 (-24.5%). The highest observed value was 2675.4 in 2022 and the lowest 1874.1 in 2024. 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 25.4% of the 649 Part I offenses reported in Benton Harbor for 2024, against a median of 16.7% across comparable Michigan cities — a gap of 8.7 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 Benton Harbor'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.
Benton Harbor's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 4.4 Census sq mi, Benton Harbor logged 110.3 property and 37.6 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Benton Harbor leans on larceny-theft at 43% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 2,890.
Violent offenses are 25% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (4.4 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Property rate moved most (2023→2024)
Property Crime Rate
+45.1%
3787.6 → 5497.5/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-18.5%
2299.6 → 1874.1/100K
Property offenses lead Benton Harbor's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs MI
vs US avg
Property Crime
484
5497.5
1395.3
1711
Larceny-Theft
278
3157.7
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
134
1522
-
-
Burglary
72
817.8
-
-
Arson
6
68.2
-
-
Violent Crime
165
1874.1
431.4
352
Aggravated Assault
145
1647
-
-
Robbery
14
159
-
-
Rape
6
68.2
-
-
Murder
0
0
-
-
Benton Harbor Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Benton Harbor property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose 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
Benton Harbor: 1874 violent, 5498 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Richfield Township, Genesee County: 67 violent, 538 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Berrien Springs-Oronoko Township: 133 violent, 544 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Saline: 211 violent, 1009 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Tecumseh: 117 violent, 338 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Houghton: 35 violent, 759 property per 100,000 (grade A+)
Greenville: 442 violent, 2487 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Plymouth: 55 violent, 968 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Spring Arbor Township: 129 violent, 353 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Benton Harbor Police Department
Reporting agency for Benton Harbor NIBRS-participating
Benton Harbor Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Benton Harbor's 649 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 Michigan
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Michigan cities closest to Benton Harbor in population. Their populations run from 8,501 to 9,095, against 8,804 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Benton Harbor reported 165 violent crimes and 484 property crimes, for a total of 649 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Benton Harbor?
From 2023 to 2024, Benton Harbor's violent crime rate decreased by 18.5%, and the property crime rate increased by 45.1%.
What is the most common crime in Benton Harbor?
The most common crime type in Benton Harbor is larceny-theft, accounting for 42.8% of all reported crimes (278 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Benton Harbor 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 Benton Harbor, MI rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.