Defiance, OH carries a PlainCrime B safety grade with violent crime 38% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Defiance, OH shows violent crime at 217.1 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,179.4 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 38% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade B from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
B safety grade
217.1/100K violent
1179.4/100K property
-38% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Defiance, OH
Comparable rate records
Defiance's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Ohio cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Defiance's 217.1 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Euclid (218.0), Napoleon (218.0), Yellow Springs (214.9), Newcomerstown (220.6). 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 higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 150.8 per 100,000 in 2020 to 217.1 in 2024 (+44.0%). The highest observed value was 260.0 in 2022 and the lowest 150.8 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Position in the state cohort
Defiance sits mid-pack among comparable Ohio cities
At 217.1 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Defiance ranks 88 of 340 — above 252 of the 339 other Ohio cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +92.0% against the cohort median of 113.1. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 15.5% of the 238 Part I offenses reported in Defiance for 2024, against a median of 10.6% across comparable Ohio cities — a gap of 5.0 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 Defiance'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.
Defiance's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 12.9 Census sq mi, Defiance logged 15.6 property and 2.9 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Defiance's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (74% of 238 offenses; mix index 5,757).
Violent offenses are 16% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (12.9 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Both rates shifted (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-16.3%
259.4 → 217.1/100K
Property Crime Rate
-18%
1438.3 → 1179.4/100K
Property offenses lead Defiance's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
201
1179.4
1711
Larceny-Theft
177
1038.6
-
Burglary
21
123.2
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
3
17.6
-
Arson
0
0
-
Violent Crime
37
217.1
352
Aggravated Assault
27
158.4
-
Rape
10
58.7
-
Murder
0
0
-
Robbery
0
0
-
Defiance Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Defiance 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
Defiance Police Department
Reporting agency for Defiance NIBRS-participating
Defiance Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Defiance's 238 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 Ohio
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Ohio cities closest to Defiance in population. Their populations run from 16,502 to 17,723, against 17,042 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Defiance reported 37 violent crimes and 201 property crimes, for a total of 238 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Defiance?
From 2023 to 2024, Defiance's violent crime rate decreased by 16.3%, and the property crime rate decreased by 18%.
What is the most common crime in Defiance?
The most common crime type in Defiance is larceny-theft, accounting for 74.4% of all reported crimes (177 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Defiance 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 Defiance, OH rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.