County crime profile · 2024 · large county · property-led

Dorchester County, SC

At 161,540 residents, Dorchester County is a large county in South Carolina. FBI UCR county totals below are read before any per-100,000 rate (Census denominator when matched).

Data updated 2026-09-05

1,212
Property offenses
259
Violent offenses
1,471
Total · 2024

Dorchester County, SC reported 160 violent crimes per 100,000 in FBI UCR 2024

According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Dorchester County, SC agencies reported 259 violent and 1,212 property offenses. That equals about 160 violent and 750 property crimes per 100,000 using a verified Census population join. Table 10 coverage is a voluntary subset of U.S. counties.

  • 2024 UCR year
  • 259 violent offenses
  • 160/100K violent rate

What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Dorchester County, SC

Position in the state cohort

Dorchester County reported a lower violent-crime rate than most comparable South Carolina counties

At 160.3 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Dorchester County ranks 34 of 43 — above 9 of the 42 other South Carolina counties whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test and carries a matched Census denominator. That is -40.7% against the cohort median of 270.4. Counties 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 198.7 per 100,000 in 2020 to 160.3 in 2024 (-19.3%). The highest observed value was 198.7 in 2020 and the lowest 124.4 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.

Offense mix

The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort

Violent offenses are 17.6% of the 1,471 Part I offenses reported in Dorchester County for 2024, against a median of 21.9% across comparable South Carolina counties — a gap of 4.2 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.

On a large county row, county figures aggregate every participating agency inside the county. Participation is voluntary. Per-100,000 rates use a separately matched 2020 U.S. Census county population, never a Table 10 field; unmatched counties stay count-only. A large county line encloses very different communities.

Crime Breakdown (2024) · property-led · large county

Category Count
Property Crime 1,212
Burglary 188
Larceny-Theft 860
Motor Vehicle Theft 164
Arson 4
Violent Crime 259
Murder 3
Rape 23
Robbery 18
Aggravated Assault 215

Reporting Agency

Dorchester County Sheriff's Office NIBRS-participating

Dorchester County's crime figures on this page originate from Dorchester County Sheriff's Office's submission to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

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 Counties in South Carolina

A per-capita rate is easiest to read against places of similar scale, so these are the South Carolina counties closest to Dorchester County in population. Their populations run from 131,404 to 203,718, against 161,540 here. Or launch the side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two jurisdictions directly.

Nationwide peers for Dorchester County

Similar violent rate (~160/100K)

Similar property rate (~750/100K)

ZIP Codes in Dorchester County

State atlas: South Carolina · Compare · Rankings

Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, Crime in the United States (CIUS) Table 10.

FBI Table 10 supplies county offense counts but no resident population. Where this page shows a per-100,000 rate, the denominator is a separately matched 2020 U.S. Census Bureau county population; unmatched county rows remain count-only. Statewide comparisons draw on the state UCR program. Verify with FBI.gov UCR and Census.gov QuickFacts.

Put this to use

Use the Dorchester County, SC FBI UCR county record to open cities inside the county, compare the state file, or look up another place.

County Table 10 totals are voluntary agency filings: incomplete coverage is not a county crime measure, and a countywide figure is not a neighbourhood verdict.

Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on FBI Uniform Crime Reporting source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.