Oxford, NC is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 139% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Oxford, NC shows violent crime at 841.5 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,587.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 139% 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
841.5/100K violent
3587.2/100K property
+139% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Oxford, NC
Position in the state cohort
Oxford reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable North Carolina cities
At 841.5 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Oxford ranks 22 of 206 — above 184 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +219.4% against the cohort median of 263.5. 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
Oxford's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Oxford's 841.5 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Gastonia (849.5), Winston-Salem (809.7), Red Springs (885.8), Asheville (796.1). 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 19.0% of the 400 Part I offenses reported in Oxford for 2024, against a median of 11.4% across comparable North Carolina cities — a gap of 7.6 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 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 1018.6 per 100,000 in 2020 to 841.5 in 2024 (-17.4%). The highest observed value was 1018.6 in 2020 and the lowest 730.7 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft dominates the property total more than it does across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 87.3% of reported property offenses in Oxford, against a cohort median of 74.5%. The remainder is burglary (29) and motor vehicle theft (12). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Oxford'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.
Small-city offense counts above are voluntary UCR submissions, not neighbourhood advice. Year-to-year swings can look large when the population base is modest.
Oxford's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 6.4 Census sq mi, Oxford logged 50.6 property and 11.9 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Oxford's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (71% of 400 offenses; mix index 5,301).
Violent offenses are 19% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (6.4 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
+12.5%
3188.2 → 3587.2/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+2%
825.3 → 841.5/100K
Property offenses lead Oxford's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs NC
Property Crime
324
3587.2
1711
1929.5
Larceny-Theft
283
3133.3
-
-
Burglary
29
321.1
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
12
132.9
-
-
Arson
2
22.1
-
-
Violent Crime
76
841.5
352
364.6
Aggravated Assault
60
664.3
-
-
Robbery
11
121.8
-
-
Rape
4
44.3
-
-
Murder
1
11.1
-
-
Oxford Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Oxford property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averagesRead the chart as a list
Oxford: 842 violent, 3587 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Rockingham: 615 violent, 3836 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Dunn: 904 violent, 5108 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Black Mountain: 58 violent, 1179 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Washington: 520 violent, 3380 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Gibsonville: 177 violent, 925 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Clinton: 566 violent, 3277 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Hillsborough: 378 violent, 4526 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Aberdeen: 245 violent, 3267 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Oxford Police Department
Reporting agency for Oxford NIBRS-participating
Oxford Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Oxford's 400 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 North Carolina
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the North Carolina cities closest to Oxford in population. Their populations run from 8,300 to 9,795, against 9,032 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Oxford reported 76 violent crimes and 324 property crimes, for a total of 400 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Oxford?
From 2023 to 2024, Oxford's violent crime rate increased by 2%, and the property crime rate increased by 12.5%.
What is the most common crime in Oxford?
The most common crime type in Oxford is larceny-theft, accounting for 70.8% of all reported crimes (283 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Oxford is sourced from FBI UCR Table 8 for 2024; rates use that row's population.
Small-city rows use the same per-100,000 formula; a few unreported years can leave gaps in the trend table. Verify the agency's submission on FBI.gov UCR.
Disclaimer (small city): UCR counts here are informational only. They are not a victimization probability. Source: FBI UCR Program.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Oxford, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.