Winchester, VA is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a C PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 32% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Winchester, VA shows violent crime at 238.3 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,328.5 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 32% 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
238.3/100K violent
2328.5/100K property
-32% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Winchester, VA
Comparable rate records
Winchester's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Virginia cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Winchester's 238.3 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Herndon (239.4), Chase City (243.5), Waynesboro (245.0), Norton (231.3). 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
Winchester sits mid-pack among comparable Virginia cities
At 238.3 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Winchester ranks 50 of 125 — above 75 of the 124 other Virginia cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +26.2% 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 265.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 238.3 in 2024 (-10.2%). The highest observed value was 286.5 in 2023 and the lowest 238.3 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Winchester'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.
Winchester's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 9.2 Census sq mi, Winchester logged 70.2 property and 7.2 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Winchester's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (79% of 711 offenses; mix index 6,358).
Violent offenses are only 9% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (9.2 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-16.8%
286.5 → 238.3/100K
Property Crime Rate
-7.9%
2528.4 → 2328.5/100K
Property offenses lead Winchester's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs VA
vs US avg
Property Crime
645
2328.5
1590.1
1711
Larceny-Theft
562
2028.9
-
-
Burglary
56
202.2
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
27
97.5
-
-
Arson
2
7.2
-
-
Violent Crime
66
238.3
222.8
352
Rape
33
119.1
-
-
Aggravated Assault
23
83
-
-
Robbery
10
36.1
-
-
Murder
0
0
-
-
Winchester Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Winchester 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 averages
Winchester Police Department
Reporting agency for Winchester NIBRS-participating
Winchester Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Winchester's 711 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 Winchester in population. Their populations run from 22,297 to 33,538, against 27,700 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Winchester at 238.3/100K violent and 2,328.5/100K property - matched below outside Virginia (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Winchester reported 66 violent crimes and 645 property crimes, for a total of 711 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Winchester?
From 2023 to 2024, Winchester's violent crime rate decreased by 16.8%, and the property crime rate decreased by 7.9%.
What is the most common crime in Winchester?
The most common crime type in Winchester is larceny-theft, accounting for 79.0% of all reported crimes (562 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Winchester 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 Winchester, VA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.