South Boston, VA is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns a D PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 32% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, South Boston, VA shows violent crime at 464.1 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,513.9 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 32% 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
464.1/100K violent
2513.9/100K property
+32% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for South Boston, VA
Position in the state cohort
South Boston reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Virginia cities
At 464.1 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, South Boston ranks 13 of 125 — above 112 of the 124 other Virginia cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +145.9% against the cohort median of 188.7. 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
South Boston's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Virginia cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to South Boston's 464.1 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Colonial Heights (462.2), Gordonsville (460.5), Franklin (460.5), Norfolk (469.5). 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 385.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 464.1 in 2024 (+20.5%). The highest observed value was 464.1 in 2024 and the lowest 329.8 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 15.6% of the 231 Part I offenses reported in South Boston for 2024, against a median of 10.4% across comparable Virginia cities — a gap of 5.2 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 77.4% of reported property offenses in South Boston, against a cohort median of 86.7%. The remainder is burglary (28) and motor vehicle theft (16). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate South Boston'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.
South Boston's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 13.1 Census sq mi, South Boston logged 14.9 property and 2.8 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
South Boston's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (65% of 231 offenses; mix index 4,620).
Violent offenses are 16% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (13.1 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
+10%
421.9 → 464.1/100K
Property Crime Rate
-0.2%
2518.5 → 2513.9/100K
Property offenses lead South Boston's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs VA
vs US avg
Property Crime
195
2513.9
1590.1
1711
Larceny-Theft
151
1946.6
-
-
Burglary
28
361
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
16
206.3
-
-
Arson
0
0
-
-
Violent Crime
36
464.1
222.8
352
Aggravated Assault
28
361
-
-
Rape
4
51.6
-
-
Robbery
3
38.7
-
-
Murder
1
12.9
-
-
South Boston Crime Trend (2020-2024)
South Boston 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
South Boston Police Department
Reporting agency for South Boston NIBRS-participating
South Boston Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind South Boston's 231 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 Virginia
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Virginia cities closest to South Boston in population. Their populations run from 7,312 to 8,469, against 7,757 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, South Boston reported 36 violent crimes and 195 property crimes, for a total of 231 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in South Boston?
From 2023 to 2024, South Boston's violent crime rate increased by 10%, and the property crime rate decreased by 0.2%.
What is the most common crime in South Boston?
The most common crime type in South Boston is larceny-theft, accounting for 65.4% of all reported crimes (151 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: South Boston 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 South Boston, VA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.