These cities lead Ohio in robberies per capita
Robberies nationwide down by almost half since 2000
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Cleveland leads all other Ohio cities by a wide margin in robberies per capita, according to federal data from 2019.
Ohio’s second most populous city reported 1,895 robberies in 2019 according to numbers kept by the FBI for the most recent year available. That comes out to 49.63 robberies per 10,000 people, which is nearly double the rate in the next highest city.
That second-place city, East Cleveland, reported 28.82 robberies per 10,000.
Behind those two neighbors were mostly large cities like Cincinnati (28.75), Canton (26.8) and Dayton (24.71). Columbus ranked 9th with 1,810 robberies among just over 906,000 people. Whitehall, one of its suburbs, however, had a slightly higher rate.
The FBI defines a robbery as “the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear.” This is different from a burglary, which the FBI specifies does not require the use of force.
The agency estimates 267,988 robberies occurred in the U.S. in 2019. About a third were robberies on the street or highway, 16% occurred in residences and 17% in businesses. As for more specific locations, 6.6% of robberies were of convenience stores, 3% were of gas stations and 1.4% were bank robberies.
The average value of property stolen per robbery was $1,797. Banks lost the most at $4,213 per robbery. Guns were used in 36.4% of robberies in 2019 and knives in 8.5%.
Like violent crimes in general, robberies have fallen significantly in the 21st Century. The rate of robberies per American dropped 5.2% from the previous year, more than 31% since 2010 and nearly 44% since 2000.
The FBI collects this data from local law enforcement, and not all Ohio cities reported data. NBC4 only looked at cities, which Ohio law defines as having more than 5,000 people.