Do you live in one of the most dangerous cities in Arizona?
We all watch the news and see reports on Facebook of the latest crimes that happen in our hometowns. But it can be hard to tell at a big picture level how dangerous our town actually is.
No one wants to feel unsafe, and statistically speaking, odds are that where you live is most likely relatively safe. In order to help the good people of Arizona — and anyone looking to move to Arizona — know just how close they are to danger, we took data from the annual FBI report and did some serious analysis.
So what is the most dangerous city in Arizona? After analyzing 49 cities in Arizona, Tolleson takes the top spot as the most dangerous city in Arizona based on the most recent FBI data.
For a detailed explanation of the data and analysis we used in creating this ranking, read on.
Or learn more about the safest places in Arizona.
If you’re looking for something more national, check out the most dangerous cities in America or the most dangerous states in America.
For more Arizona reading, check out:
- 10 Best Places To Live In Arizona
- These Are The 10 Best Counties To Live In Arizona
- 10 Cheapest Places To Live In Arizona
Graphing The Most Dangerous And Safest Places In Arizona
The 10 Most Dangerous Places To Live In Arizona For 2019
While Tolleson’s motto is “honoring our past, positioning our future,” its 1st place spot on this list puts a grim cloud over its future prospects.
It’s 1st in property crime, with residents facing a 1 in 9.4 chance.
The good news for the city’s future is that violent crime has fallen in recent years.
Located in south-central Arizona, Globe was founded as a mining camp. Today it’s the 2nd most dangerous city in the state.
Unlike other cities on the list, Globe has seen a recent boom in crime, with violent crime going up from 2015-17, and property crime also going up.
Watch your wallet in Globe, because there’s a 1 in 13.3 chance of being the victim of a property crime while you’re there.
It seems that the Holbrook is a hub of crime.
Though residents of Holbrook had a 1 in 115 chance of being the victim of a violent crime in 2017, that’s not too bad relative to other cities of its size.
Property crime now stands as the 5th worst in Arizona.
Tucson’s 4th place ranking on this list isn’t much of a surprise — it’s the 2nd biggest city in Arizona.
Tucson ranked 4th for property crime, 2017’s numbers reflect a 1 in 19.0 chance of being the victim of one.
Tucson’s slowly falling violent crime statistics are much worse than the state average coming in at 5th place.
Crime is pretty stable, living in the city you always have to be careful. The great thing about Tucson it city but town feeling. You will always run into people you know and find nice people.
The university of Arizona is the heart of the city! The basketball is Tucson gold. You will find that everywhere you go someone is wearing Arizona wildcat shirt.
Also located in Navajo County, Winslow has the honor of being a city referenced in the Eagles song “Take it Easy.”
Unfortunately, it’s also the 6th most dangerous city in Arizona, with residents 1 in 98 odds of being the victim of a violent crime.
The good news is that violent crime has been dropping steadily, and property crime is down 33% in the last 2 year period that data is available.
Page’s motto is “the center of Canyon County,” but the city is also the center of the 6th highest danger level in Arizona.
To give you an idea just how much more dangerous South Tucson is than anywhere else, though, consider that Page, as the 6th most dangerous, has a 3 times lower rate of violent crime and half the rate of property crime.
While that still leaves a 1 in 119chance of being the victim of a violent crime, the encouraging news is that this rate has fallen by 44% from 2015-17, and property crime also fell some in the same time period.
Coming in 7th is Kingman, a city of over 29,181.
With residents facing a 1 in 222 chance of being the victim of violence in 2017, Kingman ranked 13th for that criteria.
Property crime now ranks 6th in Arizona.
Glendale is only 9 miles northwest of downtown Phoenix, making it the closest city on this list to Arizona’s capital.
While there’s still a 1 in 22.1 chance of being the victim of a property crime in Glendale, their crime statistics in both categories have been falling steadily.
Located in Navajo County, Show Low’s unusual name is the result of a marathon poker game with no less than 100,000 acres at stake.
It has the 5th place position on this list, and 3rd worst violent crime statistics in the state.
And the 1 in 85 chance of being the victim of a violent crime isn’t getting any better — from 2015-17, the amount of violent crime rose by 35%.
The 8th most populated city in Arizona, Tempe ranks as the 10th most dangerous.
Tempe’s crime problem has been slowly improving in recent years, with violent crime going down from 2015-17, and property crime dropping.
Still, Tempe residents face about a 1 in 24.3 chance of being the victim of theft or arson.
I like Tempe because it’s where I grew up. It’s pretty central to a lot of places. The Phoenix Zoo and Downtown Phoenix are very close to Tempe as well. Tempe is home to Arizona State University too. There are lots of neighborhood parks and activities that happen year round in Downtown Tempe.
Favorite places are Tempe Town Lake. The neighborhoods in South Tempe are really nice. Some bad things are that so many people are moving here and there is a lot of development which is good for a city’s growth but it has taken away the small town feel that we had here when I was kid.
How Is Your Town In ?
How we determined the most dangerous cities in Arizona for 2019?
Every year the FBI release two crime datasets, a preliminary dataset limited to the biggest cities in the country, followed by a more detailed release at the end of the year.
For our analysis, we focused on the JUST released 2017 data, specifically the 2017 Crime In The United States Report. We will update the results when data becomes available in September 2019.
So what criteria did we use? Have a look:
- Violent Crimes Per Capita
- Property Crimes Per Capita
In order to make the analysis as apples to apples as possible, we only considered cities over 5,000 in population. That left us with 49 cities in Arizona.
We then ranked each city from 1 to 49 for the two criteria with a #1 ranking being the most dangerous for the particular criteria.
Next, we averaged the two rankings into one “Dangerous Index”.
Finally, we ranked every city on the “Dangerous Index” with the lowest index being the most dangerous in Arizona — Tolleson.
Read on for a detailed look at the 10 most dangerous cities in Arizona.
Locking It All Up In Arizona
The latest FBI crime data shows that Tolleson ranks as the most dangerous city in Arizona for 2019.
We want to point out again that there’s still safes places in Tolleson and that this isn’t a comment on the people that live there. So please don’t beat us up.
If you’re curious enough, here are the safest cities in Arizona:
- Thatcher (Pop. 5,054)
- Oro Valley (Pop. 44,251)
- Florence (Pop. 25,623)
For more Arizona reading, check out:
Page Motto correction.. “You don’t lose your girlfriend, you lose your turn.” Years ago, you could buy bumper stickers and magnets that said that.
Theft is probably out highest crime in the area. We have out fair share of runaways, more rape and molestation then reported because of corruption in police and courts. Shit hole.
This is a very lame ‘article’ and roadsnacks is a waste of time and downright stupid.
I dont know cities, only counties. How safe is Cochise county? What about Navajo County?
Casa Grande isn’t on this list, yet has over 50,000 people