Carson, CA has a D safety grade (33/100) with a violent crime rate of 420 per 100,000, 19% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Carson, CA Crime Rate & Safety
At 89,767 residents, Carson is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against CA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Carson, CA is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns a D PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 19% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Carson, CA shows violent crime at 420 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,930.9 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 19% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade D from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
D safety grade
420/100K violent
2930.9/100K property
+19% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Carson, CA
Comparable rate records
Carson's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Carson's 420.0 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are McFarland (421.2), Twentynine Palms (417.6), Sebastopol (422.6), El Monte (423.2). 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.
Position in the state cohort
Carson sits mid-pack among comparable California cities
At 420.0 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Carson ranks 176 of 458 — above 282 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +27.9% against the cohort median of 328.5. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Property-offense composition
Burglary and vehicle theft carry more of the property total than they do across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 57.7% of reported property offenses in Carson, against a cohort median of 69.5%. The remainder is burglary (387) and motor vehicle theft (725). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Offense mix
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 12.5% of the 3,008 Part I offenses reported in Carson for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 4.6 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 429.0 per 100,000 in 2020 to 420.0 in 2024 (-2.1%). The highest observed value was 473.8 in 2022 and the lowest 420.0 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Carson'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.
On a large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
Carson's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 18.7 Census sq mi, Carson logged 140.5 property and 20.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Carson leans on larceny-theft at 50% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,373.
Violent offenses are only 13% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (18.7 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
+5.9%
2767.8 → 2930.9/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-4.7%
440.8 → 420/100K
Property offenses lead Carson's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
2,631
2930.9
1711
Larceny-Theft
1,519
1692.2
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
725
807.6
-
Burglary
387
431.1
-
Arson
16
17.8
-
Violent Crime
377
420
352
Aggravated Assault
239
266.2
-
Robbery
105
117
-
Rape
24
26.7
-
Murder
9
10
-
Carson Crime Trend (2020-2024)
The chart omits 2021 rather than drawing an unsupported zero or partial-coverage dip. The table preserves the year and marks the gap.
Carson property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 4 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Carson Police Department
Reporting agency for Carson Summary Reporting (SRS)
Carson Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Carson's 3,008 reported offenses (4-year span 2020-2024, with internal gaps).
This agency reports via the traditional Summary Reporting System (SRS): aggregate monthly offense counts rather than incident-level detail.
Similar-Size Cities in California
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the California cities closest to Carson in population. Their populations run from 86,152 to 93,212, against 89,767 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Carson reported 377 violent crimes and 2,631 property crimes, for a total of 3,008 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Carson?
From 2023 to 2024, Carson's violent crime rate decreased by 4.7%, and the property crime rate increased by 5.9%.
What is the most common crime in Carson?
The most common crime type in Carson is larceny-theft, accounting for 50.5% of all reported crimes (1,519 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Carson's rates come from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, CIUS Table 8, vintage 2024.
Incomplete reporters stay out of rate rankings. Cross-check population with Census ACS; state UCR programs for statewide context. Primary verify links: FBI.gov UCR, Census QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (large city): informational crime rates only - not legal, insurance, or personal-safety advice. Source: FBI UCR. Ask a qualified professional before acting.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Carson, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.