Lawrence, IN has a C safety grade (56/100) with a violent crime rate of 293 per 100,000, 17% below the national average.

FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · mid-size city

Lawrence, IN Crime Rate & Safety

Lawrence (49,200 people) sits in the mid-size municipal band. This page opens with per-100,000 FBI UCR rates, then IN and national benchmarks.

Data updated 2026-08-24

My saved cities Subscribe to annual updates About this data
C
Safety grade
1,727.6
Property / 100K
292.7
Violent / 100K
49K
Population

Lawrence, IN carries a PlainCrime C safety grade with violent crime 17% below the U.S. average

According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Lawrence, IN shows violent crime at 292.7 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,727.6 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 17% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade C from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.

  • C safety grade
  • 292.7/100K violent
  • 1727.6/100K property
  • -17% vs U.S.

What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Lawrence, IN

Comparable rate records

Lawrence's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Indiana cohort

The nearest comparable 2024 records to Lawrence's 292.7 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Michigan City (291.7), Fremont (289.3), Bloomington (286.9), Bristol (280.1). 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

Lawrence reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Indiana cities

At 292.7 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Lawrence ranks 25 of 113 — above 88 of the 112 other Indiana cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +88.5% against the cohort median of 155.3. 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 66.6% of reported property offenses in Lawrence, against a cohort median of 82.0%. The remainder is burglary (70) and motor vehicle theft (214). 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 340.9 per 100,000 in 2020 to 292.7 in 2024 (-14.1%). The highest observed value was 340.9 in 2020 and the lowest 292.7 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.

Property counts dominate Lawrence'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.

Lawrence's 2024 municipal footprint

Across 20.2 Census sq mi, Lawrence logged 42.2 property and 7.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.

Lawrence leans on larceny-theft at 57% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,837.

Violent offenses are only 14% of the municipal total - a property-led book.

Lawrence offense mix (2024)

Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (20.2 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
-23.7%
2264.2 → 1727.6/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-8.2%
318.8 → 292.7/100K

Property offenses lead Lawrence's 2024 record

Offense Count Rate /100K
Property Crime 850 1727.6
Larceny-Theft 566 1150.4
Motor Vehicle Theft 214 435
Burglary 70 142.3
Arson 2 4.1
Violent Crime 144 292.7
Aggravated Assault 78 158.5
Robbery 37 75.2
Rape 23 46.7
Murder 6 12.2

Lawrence Crime Trend (2020-2024)

Lawrence property crime rate trend

Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR

Property crime rate (2024)
1,727.6/100K 23.7% vs 2023
1,6001,8002,0002,2002,400 20202021202220232024 1,728

Lawrence violent crime rate trend

Secondary series · fell · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR

Violent crime rate (2024)
292.7/100K 8.2% vs 2023
280300320340360 20202021202220232024 293
Year Coverage Population Violent Rate Property Rate
2020 Comparable 49,865 340.9 1961.3
2021 Comparable 49,916 306.5 1927.2
2022 Comparable 49,421 329.8 2001.2
2023 Comparable 49,244 318.8 2264.2
2024 Comparable 49,200 292.7 1727.6

How Lawrence sits among IN peers

POP-MIDCOHORT-SIZEVIOL-LOWPROP-HIGHQUAD-LHGRADE-CNIBRSUCR-2024
Lawrence vs. similar-size IN cities, violent vs. property crime. X axis violent crime per 100K, Y axis property crime per 100K, split by the national averages. 9 cities; the anchor is ringed. Lawrence vs. similar-size IN cities, violent vs. property crime 12 1,075 Violent crime per 100K → 75 3,701 Property crime per 100K → Lawrence SAFEST HIGHEST CRIME Safety grade A / B C D / F
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages

Lawrence Police Department

Reporting agency for Lawrence NIBRS-participating

Lawrence Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Lawrence's 994 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 Indiana

Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Indiana cities closest to Lawrence in population. Their populations run from 38,700 to 58,536, against 49,200 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.

Lawrence's closest IN violent-rate matches

Lawrence sits at 292.7/100K violent (grade C); the Indiana cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.

Out-of-state peers for Lawrence

Lawrence at 292.7/100K violent and 1,727.6/100K property - matched below outside Indiana (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).

More about Lawrence's 2024 record

How many crimes were reported in Lawrence?

In 2024, Lawrence reported 144 violent crimes and 850 property crimes, for a total of 994 reported offenses.

Is crime increasing or decreasing in Lawrence?

From 2023 to 2024, Lawrence's violent crime rate decreased by 8.2%, and the property crime rate decreased by 23.7%.

What is the most common crime in Lawrence?

The most common crime type in Lawrence is larceny-theft, accounting for 56.9% of all reported crimes (566 incidents in 2024).

Mid-size read: Lawrence 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.

Federal sources for this mid-size row
Cite, share, or save this city record

Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Lawrence, IN rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.

Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)

Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Lawrence is scored in the mid-size municipal band (49,200 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.