Lawndale, CA carries a PlainCrime D safety grade with violent crime 69% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Lawndale, CA shows violent crime at 593.7 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,865.3 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 69% 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
593.7/100K violent
1865.3/100K property
+69% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Lawndale, CA
Comparable rate records
Lawndale's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the California cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Lawndale's 593.7 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Anaheim (596.2), Oxnard (596.4), San Francisco (596.5), Riverside (589.7). 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.
Position in the state cohort
Lawndale reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable California cities
At 593.7 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Lawndale ranks 92 of 458 — above 366 of the 457 other California cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +80.7% 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 4 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 476.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 593.7 in 2024 (+24.7%). The highest observed value was 622.9 in 2023 and the lowest 436.4 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 24.1% of the 729 Part I offenses reported in Lawndale for 2024, against a median of 17.1% across comparable California cities — a gap of 7.0 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-offense composition
Burglary and vehicle theft carry more of the property total than they do across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 60.0% of reported property offenses in Lawndale, against a cohort median of 69.5%. The remainder is burglary (62) and motor vehicle theft (159). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Lawndale'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.
Lawndale's 2024 municipal footprint
Lawndale leans on larceny-theft at 46% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 2,916.
Violent offenses are 24% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (when validated); 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
-13.1%
2145.3 → 1865.3/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-4.7%
622.9 → 593.7/100K
Property offenses lead Lawndale's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
553
1865.3
1711
Larceny-Theft
332
1119.8
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
159
536.3
-
Burglary
62
209.1
-
Arson
1
3.4
-
Violent Crime
176
593.7
352
Aggravated Assault
109
367.7
-
Robbery
61
205.8
-
Rape
6
20.2
-
Murder
0
0
-
Lawndale 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.
Lawndale 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
Lawndale Police Department
Reporting agency for Lawndale Summary Reporting (SRS)
Lawndale Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Lawndale's 729 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 Lawndale in population. Their populations run from 28,976 to 30,457, against 29,647 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Lawndale at 593.7/100K violent and 1,865.3/100K property - matched below outside California (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Lawndale reported 176 violent crimes and 553 property crimes, for a total of 729 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Lawndale?
From 2023 to 2024, Lawndale's violent crime rate decreased by 4.7%, and the property crime rate decreased by 13.1%.
What is the most common crime in Lawndale?
The most common crime type in Lawndale is larceny-theft, accounting for 45.5% of all reported crimes (332 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Lawndale 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 Lawndale, CA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.