Florida Crime Statistics

Below is a list of curated statistics related to crime, arrests, domestic violence and safety in Florida. This list constitutes what is considered some of the most relevant statistics and facts.

For the purpose of these statistics, property crimes include:

• Burglary 
• Larceny
• Motor vehicle theft
• Arson
• Vandalism 

Additionally, the following crimes are classified as violent crimes: 

• Murder and manslaughter
• Sexual battery or rape
• Robbery
• Assault and aggravated assault 
• Aggravated stalking

The classifications for property crime and violent crime are sourced from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement website.

Property & Violent Crime Rates in Florida

• Between 1960 and 1990, the number of property crime arrests increased by 696.8% from 122,858 arrests to 978,944.
  • In the same time period, the number of violent crime arrests rose by 1,355% (approximately double the increase compared to property arrests), from 11,061 to 160,990.
  • Violent Crime was at an all-time high in 1993 with 164,975 arrests.
  • Property crime was at its highest in 1994 with 991,105 arrests.

As of 2019, property and violent crime arrests have dropped by 52.9% and 49.5% since 1990. Overall since 1960, the number of arrests has increased by 304.8% as of 2019: 

• property crime went up 275.1%
• violent crime went up 634.7%

However, Florida’s population grew over that period, increasing by 333.8% (4,951,560 in 1960 and 21,477,737 in 2019). The statistics in the following section show the crime rates (measured 100,000 people in Florida or by sub-population of a specified group).

Property & Violent Crimes Per 100,000 in Florida

• Between 1960 and 1990, the property crime rate increased by 205% from 2481.2 to 7566.6 per 100,000, respectively.
• In the same period of time, violent crime increased by 457%, from 223.4 to 1244.3 per 100,000.
• While not as low as crime rates in the 1960s, rates between 1990 and 2019 have since decreased by 71.6% and 69.6% for Property and Violent crime arrests, respectively.

Because of the population increase, the nominal arrest data and crime rate figures differ under Florida’s growth.

• Both Violent and Property Crime nominal arrests have been steadily declining since their all-time highs in ‘93 and ‘94 respectively. 
• Violent Crime rate was at an all-time high in 1990 with 1,244.3 arrests per 100,000 and Property crimes in 1988 at 7,819.9 per 100,000

	Property Crime Rate	Property % Change	Violent Crime Rate	Violent % Change
1960	2145.7	–	223.4	–
1970	4819	94%	498.2	123%
1980	7418.4	54%	983.5	97%
1990	7566.6	2%	1244.3	27%
2000	4882.7	-35%	812	-35%
2010	3551.4	-27%	541.3	-33%
2019	2145.7	-40%	378.4	-30

Property & Violent Crimes Rates in Florida vs Other States

The table and data below are based on the Uniform Crime Reports historical data collection. The ranking below compares the respective violent and property crime rates per 100,000 for each state, along with the population and ranks them. A ranking of 1 represents the highest population or crime rate among all states. The lower the rank, the lower the crime arrest rate or population compared to other states.

For example:

State	Violent Crime Rank	Violent Crime Arrests per 100,000
Florida	18	430.4
Delaware	9	508.8
Tennessee	4	632.9

In 2016, Florida Ranked 18^th with a violent crime rate per 100,000 of 430.4, lower rates than Tennessee and Delaware ranking 4^th and 9^th, respectively.

Since 1960, both the violent and property crime rates respective rankings for Florida were there at their lowest in 2016. During this time, the property crime rate ranked 22 and violent crime was 18^th. 

Florida ranked in the top 10 states with the highest property crime rates until 2004, when it ranked below 10 at #14. 

Between 1985 and 1993, it ranked #1 every year consecutively, as the state with the most property crime arrests per 100,000. It ranked #1 again in 1996 and most recently in 1998.

As for the violent crime rate, Florida ranked in the Top 10 states with the highest violent crime rate from 1960 to 2014.  In fact, it ranked #1 for most violent crimes for 12 of the 13 years between 1985 and 1997, except for being ranked #2 in 1989.

• While the Population of Florida has grown 7% between 2019 and 2015, crime rates have decreased.
• The aggregate (both property and violent) crime rate declined by 23.3% from 2015 to 2019.
  • Both property and violent crime rates have decreased, contributing to the aggregate decline.
  •  In 2019, property crime arrest rates were down 24.5% from the 2015 rate.
  • Violent crime rates decreased 16% in that same period.
• Overall, property crime rates decreased annually, with an average net change of 4.6% per year. Violent crimes only fell by an average of 1.6% per year.

Stolen Property: Most Commonly Stolen Items in Florida

While property crime rates have decreased, the amount of property that was reported and documented stolen in Florida was more than $1.35 Billion in 2019.

• Of that total, motor vehicles represented 45.2% of the total stolen property value.
• Aside from miscellaneous property, which constituted 21.9% of all stolen property, jewelry/precious metals (10.9%) and currency/note (9%) ranked 2^nd and 3^rd in stolen value, respectively.
• Office equipment, interestingly, ranked 4^th representing 6.8% of all stolen property value.

 Recovery of Stolen Property in Florida

• Of the total USD $1.35 Billion of property stolen in Florida in 2019, only 30.9% was recovered. 
• 58.6% of the value in motor vehicles stolen in 2019 was recovered. 
• While a small amount of stolen property constituted livestock, it ranked #2 in percentage recovered with 19.5%.
  •  Firearms ranked 3^rd with 17.2% recovered in 2019
• The stolen items least recovered include:
  • Currency/note/etc. was the least recovered at 1.8%
  • 2.6% of stolen office equipment was recovered
  • Only 4.5% of jewelry and precious metals were recovered

Violent Crime Arrests: Weapon Violence Statistics in Florida

• Violent crimes involving firearms only decreased by 0.2% between 2018 and 2019.
• Knife and cutting instruments declined by 2.3% while violent crime arrests involving hands, fists or feet increased by the same amount – 2.3%.
• Arrests involving other types of weapons saw the largest decrease of 5.8%.

Common Violent Crimes in Florida

• Between 2018 and 2019, murders increased by 1.5% from 1,104 to 1,121.
• Rape remained nearly unchanged, with 8442 in 2018 and 8439 in 2019.
• Aggravated assault declined by 0.3% from 55,499 arrests in 2018 to 55,333 in 2019.
• Over that period, robbery experienced the most significant decrease of 3.9%, from 16,861 to 16,199 arrests.

Domestic Violence (DV) Statistics in Florida

Florida classifies domestic violence as those offenses where a person causes (or threats to cause) physical harm to a family member. Below is a summary of recent domestic violence arrest data in Florida.

In 2019, Florida registered 66,069 related to domestic violence offenses. 80% of these arrests were simple assaults and 15.3% aggravated assaults. Compared to 2018, the number of 2019 arrests related to domestic violence increased by 2.6%. Levy County had the highest domestic violence rate (1,209.8 per 100,000). 

The remaining 4.7% of domestic violence arrests in 2019 consisted of threat, intimidation, stalking, as well as violent crimes such as aggravated stalking, murder, manslaughter and sexual assault / sexual battery.

Counties in Florida with Lowest and Highest Domestic Violence

• Calhoun had the lowest domestic violence crime rate of 113.74 per 100,000. This county also ranked in the 10 counties with the lowest property and violent crime rates. 
• On the other hand, Levy County had the highest domestic violence rate of 1,209.8 per 100,000 residents and it also ranked in the 10 counties with the highest violent crime rates.
• Citrus represents the median with a domestic violence crime rate of 559.75 per 100,000. Along with Collier and Flagler, Citrus also ranked as the counties with the median domestic violent crime rate that was simple assaults (79%).
• Of the domestic crime arrests in Levy, only 12% were for simple assaults; making the majority 88% of DV arrests categorized as non-simple assaults, including Murder, Rape, Fondling, and Aggravated Assault.
• Putnam County had the highest percentage of simple assault DV arrests at 90%

Crimes Committed by Females in Florida

• In 2019, there were a total of 679,221 arrests in Florida.

Adult Female arrests totaled 164,784 while female juvenile arrests were 10,721, representing 26% and 24% of 2019 Florida adult and juvenile female arrests, respectively.

In 2019, Juvenile accounted for 6.57% of Florida arrests, or 44,647 juvenile arrests out of a total 679,221 arrests (adult and juvenile). In the same time period, 1.57% of total arrests (adult and juvenile) consisted of female juveniles, meaning that nearly 5% of the total arrests were juvenile males.

There is a distinct difference in the types of crimes where women make up a larger portion of the arrests. The majority of offenses where arrests constitute a higher portion of females are for non-violent crimes, as shown below.

• Crimes where the percentage of female arrests was highest included :
  • Prostitution/Commercialized Sex – 53.6%
  • Embezzlement – 48.4%
  • Larceny – 37.6%
  •  Bribery – 36.4%
  •  Fraud – 35.6%

All of which are non-violent crimes.

Adult vs. Juvenile Crime Statistics

The difference between the percentage of juvenile/adult arrests is smaller by race compared to gender segmentation. The graphic above shows the number of arrests for juveniles out of the total arrests by race.

In Florida, the highest percentage of juvenile arrests took place among the black population. This segment represented 8.77% of the total number of arrests. White and American Indian races were 6.23% and 6.43%, respectively. With 6.10%, the Asian segment had the lowest percentage of juvenile arrests.

Florida Crime Statistics by Race

Crime arrest rates differ significantly when broken down by race/ethnicity. In addition to this, when looking at the arrests by type of crime, there is also a significant variation in the percentage of arrests by race. Below is the crime rate by race recorded in Florida, 2019. 

In 2019, the White segment of the population had an arrest rate of 2,569.8 per 100,000. With a rate of 7,203.7, Florida’s Black population had the highest arrest rate. In the same year, American Indian’s rate was 2,076.4 and the Asian segment had the lowest arrest rate of 736.2 per 100,000. 

Further details and specifics of the aggregated data and classification of races and ethnicities is described in subsequent sections.

Crime Rate by Race in Florida

The data table below summarizes the aggregate (property and violent) crime rates in Florida by Race over a 40-year period.

Race	1980	1990	2000	2010	2019
White	3,896.7	4,669.2	4,130.4	3,711.7	2,750.4
Black	9,340.1	12,997.5	10,884.4	8,661.9	5,723.3
AIAN	8,560.6	7,383.2	5,892.5	4,355.5	5,103.3
Asian	1,539.1	1,451.7	1,191.6	925.7	730.9
All races	4,527.6	5,616.8	4,904.4	4,241.8	3,072.5

• The Highest percentage of White arrests by offense types:
  • Driving under the influence – 81%
  •  Liquor laws – 78%
  • Drunkenness – 76%
• The highest percentage of Black arrests by crime types:
  • Robbery – 53%
  • Murder and non-negligent manslaughter – 51%
  • Tied for 3^rd highest with 42%: Weapons-related crimes (i.e. carrying, possessing, etc.) and prostitution/commercialized sex tied for 3^rd highest with 42%
• The highest percentage of American Indian arrests by offense were:
  • Drunkenness – 8%
  • Disorderly conduct – 5%
  • Liquor laws – 5%
• The highest percentage of Asian arrests by offense type:
  • Gambling – 13%
  • Prostitution/Commercialized Sex – 7%
  • Driving under the influence – 3%

Arrests by Race in Florida

From 2019 US Census data, the US population is broken down by race into White, Black, American Indian and Asian, which respectively represent 76.5%, 14.3%, 2.1% and 6.8% of the total population.

• Where White includes Hispanic-Latino from the Uniform Crime Report Data.
• Separately, the number of 2019 US Hispanic Residents is estimated at 54,878,318, making up 16.2% of the total US population.
• Leaving Caucasians constituting 60.2% of the population at 203,768,170 residents
• AIAN includes American Indian and Alaska Native statistics

• The White (Caucasian + Hispanic-Latino) segment makes up 76.5% of the total population while accounting for 70% of all arrests.
  • The white arrest rate in 2019 is 2750.4 per 100,000 across the US.
  • In Florida, the white arrest rate in 2019 was 2,569.8 per 100,000, declining steadily from 3,109.4 in 2015.
• The Black population makes up 14.3% of the population and 26% of total arrests
  • The 2019 US arrest rate for this segment is 5,723.3
  • The 2019 black arrest rate in Florida was 7,203.7, a 17.3% decrease since 2015.
• The AIAN population and arrests were near par at 2% and 2.1%, respectively.
  • The Federal AIAN arrest rate was higher, however, at 5,103.3 per 100,000 in 2019. In Florida, the AIAN arrest rate was 2,076.4 – down 53.7% since 2015.
• The percentage of Asian arrests in 2019 (2%) is significantly lower than the population make-up at 6.8%.
  • Asian also accounted for the lowest arrest rate compared to other populations at 730.9 per 100,000 across the US.
  • In 2019, the Asian arrest rate in Florida was very close to the federal rate at 736.2.
  • The 2019 Florida arrest rate for Asians is lower than in 2015 (827.1), however, was higher from 2016 – 2018; with rates of:
    • 1,014.9 in 2016
    • 971.1 in 2017
    • 972.2 in 2018

Safest & Most Dangerous Counties in Florida by Crime Rates

The State of Florida has 67 counties with an estimated population of 21,208,589 residents. Between 2015 and 2019, Florida averaged property and violent crime rates of 2,488.86 and 412.86, respectively.

Both Florida’s violent and property crime rates have declined over that period:

• Violent crime rate decreased from 462.5 in 2015 to 378.4 in 2019, and averaged an annual decline of -16.8 per 100,000.
• Florida’s property crime rate decreased annually with 2,817 in 2015 to 2,146 in 2019 – consisting of an average drop of 134.2 per 100,000 annually.

Florida Counties with the Overall Highest & Lowest Crime Rates

What County in Florida has the highest crime rate? According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, in 2019 Bay County had the highest crime rate out of all counties in Florida with 9,472.0 arrests per 100,000 people. With a population of 167,283 residents, Bay County made 15,845 arrests in total for the year.

What County in Florida has the lowest crime rate? FDLE’s 2019 County and Jurisdictional Reported Arrest Data shows that Jackson County had the lowest crime rate of all Florida counties with 1,424.3 arrests per 100,000 residents. A total of 669 arrests were made in the county with an estimated population of 46,660.

Counties in Florida with the Lowest Property Crime Rates

The following data shows the 10 counties in Florida with the lowest property crime rates.

• They range from 500.5 (Union) to 1159.1 (Glades) per 100,000 averaged across 2015 to 2019.
• The average property crime rate across all counties in Florida between 2015-2019 is 1,927.2 per 100,000 and averaged 2,488.86 across Florida as a state.

County	Property Crime Rate per 100k	2019 Population
Baker	1157.7	28,249
Calhoun	678.5	14,067
Gilchrist	541.1	17,766
Glades	1159.1	13,121
Lafayette	1081.4	8,482
Liberty	534.6	8,772
Santa Rosa	537.8	179,054
Sumter	1063.2	128,633
Suwannee	933.9	45,423
Union	500.5	15,505

10 Counties in Florida with the Lowest Violent Crime Rates

The ten Florida counties with the lowest violent crime rates are shown in the table below.

• Liberty County had the lowest violent crime rate of 95.6 per 100,000 people.
• Nassau had the highest rate at 215.8, 125.7% higher than Liberty’s.
• The Florida state average from 2015-2019 was 412.86 per 100,000.
  • Meaning that Liberty County’s crime rate was 3.3 times lower while Nassau’s was 91.3% lower than the state average.

County	Violent Crime Rate per 100k	2019 Population
Liberty	95.6	8,772
Gilchrist	119.2	17,766
Santa Rosa	151.8	179,054
St. Johns	179.9	254,412
Washington	192.9	25,387
Charlotte	209.4	181,770
Union	210.3	15,505
Calhoun	210.4	14,067
Glades	213.5	13,121
Nassau	215.8	85,070

Both lists share five counties in common, shown in the graph above; Union, Liberty, Santa Rosa, Glades and Calhoun.

• Of these, Glades has the highest violent and property crime rates.
• However, the violent crime rate is still 95% lower than the state average and the property crime rate is 114.7% lower.

Top 5 Counties with the Lowest Crime Rate in Florida

Compared to the average across all Florida counties of 1,927.2 per 100,000 over the same period:

• Florida has a property crime rate of 2,488.86 per 100,000 from 2015 to 2019.
• Florida and the average across all counties respectively, had 4.9 and 3.8 times the number of property-related arrests than Union County, which had the lowest rate 500.5 per 100,000.
• The smallest county by population in the above graph was Calhoun with 14,067 residents. The largest county by population was Santa Rosa with an estimated 179,054 residents.

• The state of Florida’s violent crime rate has been steadily declining each year from 462.5 in 2015 to 378.4 in 2019.
• It should be noted that Liberty reported no violent crimes rate in 2015 and therefore contributed to the lowest violent crime rate for Florida counties at 95.6 per 100,000.
  • However, if averaged from 2016-2019, the average would have been 119.5, 0.3 per 100,000 higher than Gilchrist and would make Gilchrist the county with the lowest violent crime rate.
  • In 2019, Liberty reported a violent crime rate of 216.6, illustrating that violent crime hasn’t remained low or trending downward over this period.
• The smallest county by population in the top 5 by violent crime was Washington with an estimated population of 8,772. The largest county shown in the graph is Gilchrist with an estimated 181,770 residents .

Counties in Florida with the Highest Property Crime Rates

• The following data shows the 10 counties in Florida with the highest property crime rates.
  • They range from 500.5 (Union) to 1159.1 (Glades) per 100,000 averaged across 2015 to 2019.
  • The average property crime rate across all counties in Florida between 2015-2019 is 1,927.2 per 100,000 and averaged 2,488.86 across Florida as a state.

County	Property Crime Rate per 100k	2019 Population
Alachua	2896.0	267,306
Bay	3641.7	167,283
Broward	2945.3	1,919,644
Duval	3527.2	970,672
Escambia	3306.4	321,134
Leon	4129.2	296,499
Miami-Dade	3368.5	2,812,130
Monroe	2514.1	76,212
Okeechobee	2853.7	41,808
Orange	3399.7	1,386,080

10 Counties in Florida with the Highest Violent Crime Rates

• The ten Florida counties with the highest violent crime rates are shown in the table below.
  • The Florida state average from 2015-2019 was 412.86 per 100,000.
  • Levy County had the highest violent crime rate of 1,096.26 per 100,000 people, followed by Taylor County with a rate of 1,048.6.
  • Of the top 10, Columbia had the lowest rate at 550.8, just 50.2% the crime rate of Levy and yet 33.4% higher than Florida’s state average. 

County	Violent Crime Rate per 100k	2019 Population
Alachua	627.0	267,306
Columbia	550.8	70,492
Duval	619.7	970,672
Escambia	590.9	321,134
Jefferson	628.5	14,776
Leon	681.6	296,499
Levy	1096.2	41,330
Madison	868.4	19,570
Orange	599.1	1,386,080
Taylor	1048.6	22,458

• The Counties in the graph – Union, Liberty, Santa Rosa, Glades and Calhoun – were in both the 10 highest violent and property crimes lists, respectively.
  • Leon had both the highest violent and property rates with 681.6 and 4,129.2 per 100,000, respectively. 
  • Leon County’s crime rates are 65.9% and 65.1% higher than the state averages for violent and property crime, respectively.

• Levy County had the highest violent crime rate at 1,096.2 per 100,000, from 2015 to 2019.
  • Levy’s violent crime rate is 165.6% higher than Florida’s average rate of 412.8 over the same period.
  • Jefferson with the 5^th highest violent crime rate has a substantially lower rate than Levy with 628.5 per 100,000 or 52.2% higher than the state average.
    • The smallest county by population in the top 5 by violent crime was Jefferson with 14,776 estimated residents. The largest population in the top 5 was Leon with 296,499 residents.
  • The smallest county by population in the top 5 by property crime was Bay County with 167,306 residents. The largest county was Duval with 2,812,130 residents.   

• Leon County had the highest property crime rate of 4,129.2 per 100,000 people averaged over 2015-2019.
  • Leon’s rate is 65.9% higher than the state average.
  • The smallest county by population in the top 5 by property crime was Bay County with 167,306 residents. The largest county was Duval with 2,812,130 residents.

• The violent crime rate has a correlation of 0.10 with the population – meaning that there is a weak, positive correlation that violent crime rate increases as the population increases. However, it’s too weak to indicate a relationship between population and the violent crime rate.
• Property crime rates across all counties had a stronger, positive correlation with a population of 0.48.
• The highest correlation and linear relationship is between property and violent crime rates with 0.52 and is, therefore, the strongest indicator of either rate being higher is dependent on the other’s rate.

References

The Disaster Center. (n.d.). Florida Crime Rates 1960 – 2019. https://www.disastercenter.com/crime/flcrime.htm

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (n.d.). Crime Data Explorer – Florida. https://crime-data-explorer.app.cloud.gov/explorer/state/florida/crime

Florida Department of Law Enforcement. (n.d.). UCR Offense Data. http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/FSAC/Data-Statistics/UCR-Offense-Data

Florida Department of Law Enforcement. (n.d.). Florida Arrest Totals by Age and Sex. https://www.fdle.state.fl.us/FSAC/UCR/2019/Arrest-Totals-By-Age-And-Sex-2019A.aspx

Florida Department of Law Enforcement. (n.d.). 2019 Florida Statewide County Crime Report. http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/FSAC/UCR/2019/2019A_Statewide_County.aspx

Florida Department of Law Enforcement. (n.d.). UCR Arrest Data. http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/FSAC/Data-Statistics/UCR-Offense-Data

Florida Department of Law Enforcement. (n.d.). UCR Domestic Violence. http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/fsac/data-statistics/ucr-domestic-violence.aspx

Florida Department of Law Enforcement. (2020, 3 12). UCR Crime in Florida Abstract Statewide 2019. https://www.fdle.state.fl.us/FSAC/UCR/2019/UCR-Crime-in-Florida-Abstract-Statewide-2019A.aspx

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (n.d.). Arrests by offense, age and race. Statistical Briefing Book. https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/ucr.asp?table_in=2

United States Census Bureau. (n.d.). Florida Hispanic or Latino Origin by Race (B03002). Explore Census Data. https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=B03002&g=0400000US12&tid=ACSDT1Y2019.B03002&hidePreview=true