Cape Girardeau, MO carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 77% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Cape Girardeau, MO shows violent crime at 623.3 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,456.3 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 77% 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
623.3/100K violent
2456.3/100K property
+77% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Cape Girardeau, MO
Position in the state cohort
Cape Girardeau reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Missouri cities
At 623.3 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Cape Girardeau ranks 29 of 272 — above 243 of the 271 other Missouri cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +238.1% against the cohort median of 184.3. 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
Cape Girardeau's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Missouri cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Cape Girardeau's 623.3 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Riverside (613.6), St. John (608.9), Branson West (598.8), Hillsdale (597.8). 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 886.3 per 100,000 in 2020 to 623.3 in 2024 (-29.7%). The highest observed value was 886.3 in 2020 and the lowest 601.5 in 2022. 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 20.2% of the 1,255 Part I offenses reported in Cape Girardeau for 2024, against a median of 13.4% across comparable Missouri cities — a gap of 6.8 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 Cape Girardeau'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.
Mid-size municipal totals above are reported offenses, not safety advice for any single block. Reporting completeness still varies by year and agency.
Cape Girardeau's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 29.3 Census sq mi, Cape Girardeau logged 34.2 property and 8.7 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Cape Girardeau's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (63% of 1,255 offenses; mix index 4,383).
Violent offenses are 20% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (29.3 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Property rate moved most (2023→2024)
Property Crime Rate
-5.2%
2590.3 → 2456.3/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-2.5%
639 → 623.3/100K
Property offenses lead Cape Girardeau's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
1,001
2456.3
1711
Larceny-Theft
787
1931.1
-
Burglary
121
296.9
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
93
228.2
-
Arson
6
14.7
-
Violent Crime
254
623.3
352
Aggravated Assault
217
532.5
-
Rape
21
51.5
-
Robbery
13
31.9
-
Murder
3
7.4
-
Cape Girardeau Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Cape Girardeau 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 averages
Cape Girardeau Police Department
Reporting agency for Cape Girardeau NIBRS-participating
Cape Girardeau Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Cape Girardeau's 1,255 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 Missouri
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Missouri cities closest to Cape Girardeau in population. Their populations run from 29,082 to 50,695, against 40,753 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Cape Girardeau reported 254 violent crimes and 1,001 property crimes, for a total of 1,255 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Cape Girardeau?
From 2023 to 2024, Cape Girardeau's violent crime rate decreased by 2.5%, and the property crime rate decreased by 5.2%.
What is the most common crime in Cape Girardeau?
The most common crime type in Cape Girardeau is larceny-theft, accounting for 62.7% of all reported crimes (787 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Cape Girardeau figures are FBI UCR CIUS Table 8 (vintage 2024), population-adjusted per 100,000.
Denominators are the reporting-year population on the municipal row. Incomplete years are dropped from rankings. Confirm at FBI Crime Data Explorer and Census.gov QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (mid-size municipal): figures are informational, not advice. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is the source. Consult a professional before decisions.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Cape Girardeau, MO rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.