Bensonhurst is a neighborhood of 111,100 residents in Brooklyn, about 6 miles south of downtown · Updated November 2026
Is Bensonhurst in Brooklyn safe?
Bensonhurst has more crime than most of the country: an overall CrimeGrade™ of C, with more crime than the neighborhoods where 85% of Americans live. Violent crime grades better than property crime here, B+ against F. Brooklyn as a whole grades C-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Bensonhurst run from A+ to F, so check the map below.
C
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 407 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
15% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Bensonhurst as a whole, and 85% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Bensonhurst scores 407.
Crime is concentrated in a small share of places, so most neighborhoods score high on the 0 to 1,000 scale. That is why a score in the 800s can still mean more crime than most US neighborhoods.
How to read the map: each area's color compares its crime with the people, homes and cars there, on one national scale, from green for the least crime to red for the most. Each area gets its own color, so a busy shopping center can show red while the homes beside it stay green. The interactive maps load faster on a strong connection. Compare high speed internet in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, NY at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, and anyone thinking about buying or renting a home there.
Business and enterprise customers: this free map shows neighborhood areas. CrimeGrade™ business reports map crime at about 66-meter detail and estimate it for one address and type of business. See business reports
What stands out in Bensonhurst
Burglary is a strength. Bensonhurst grades F for property crime, but burglary grades A, better than in the neighborhoods where 62% of Americans live.
Thefts from cars happen on streets and sidewalks far more often than nationally. In Brooklyn as a whole, 79% of reported thefts from cars happen on streets and sidewalks, against 18% nationally.
Car thefts are uncommon. Bensonhurst has car thefts at about half the US rate: 1.2 a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.7 nationally.
How Bensonhurst compares within Brooklyn
In Bensonhurst, 10% of residents live in areas graded A or B, 44% in areas graded C and 46% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Bensonhurst run from A+ to F; 1% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
10%44%46%
A or B 10%C 44%D or F 46%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Bensonhurst has less crime than 17 of the 39 neighborhoods in Brooklyn. It covers much of the Bensonhurst, Bay Ridge-Fort Hamilton, and Dyker Heights areas.
Is crime going up in Brooklyn?
Reported crime in Brooklyn as a whole has risen since 2019: violent crime is up 15% and property crime up 58%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 5.7 to 6.6 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 15 to 23 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
BrooklynUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Brooklyn. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Brooklyn
Violent, US
Property, Brooklyn
Property, US
2016
+1%
+4%
+1%
+15%
2017
-4%
+4%
+1%
+12%
2018
-4%
+0%
+4%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-4%
+4%
+1%
-8%
2021
+10%
+6%
+8%
-10%
2022
+28%
+5%
+44%
-6%
2023
+15%
+2%
+61%
-7%
2024
+15%
-4%
+58%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Bensonhurst
CrimeGrade™ estimates Bensonhurst has about 34 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 8% less than the US as a whole and 36% less than Brooklyn as a whole.
Overall crime
Violent crime
Property crime
Reported crimes a year, per 1,000 residents. These figures include simple assaults and vandalism, which the FBI's violent and property crime rates leave out.
The largest share of crime reported in Bensonhurst is assault, about 44% of the total. It also makes up the largest share of what crime costs here.
Each CrimeGrade™ compares a crime with what it affects: people for assaults and robbery, homes for burglary, parked cars for vehicle theft. Rates count crimes per 1,000 residents.
Select a crime's name to see its map above. CrimeGrade™ business reports map each crime at about 66-meter detail.
Where and when crime happens in Brooklyn
The New York City Police Department polices Bensonhurst; these figures cover New York as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In New York as a whole, 50% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (50%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (79%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Streets and sidewalks (79%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Streets and sidewalks (40%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Streets and sidewalks (45%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (50%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Shares of the crimes reported to police, 2022 to 2024. Reports with no time recorded are left out of the times.
How Bensonhurst compares with nearby neighborhoods
Bensonhurst has more crime than 9 of its 10 nearest neighborhoods. Dyker Heights and Sheepshead Bay have the least crime nearby.
Density, parking lots and walkability in Bensonhurst
Two things set Bensonhurst apart: it has 100% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally, and 0.0 parking-lot spaces per resident, against 2.0 nationally. Places where many residents live in dense blocks tend to report more robbery and car theft, and they run high here.
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.100% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 99% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.under 1 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Lower than for 99% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Walk GradeBestNeighborhood's grade for getting through daily life on foot, traced along real walking routes to shops, schools and parks. Walkable places tend to report more theft and assault. 94% of residents here live in walkable areas.A (88 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 90% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
Tree coverThe share of land under tree canopy where people live. Leafy neighborhoods tend to report less robbery.1% where people liveUS: 21%Lower than for 98% of residents of US city neighborhoods
These traits tend to go with more or less crime; none of them causes it on its own. Sources: Census job counts and housing figures, OpenStreetMap and Overture business listings, CrimeGrade™ parking estimates, NASA night-light imagery, US Forest Service tree cover, EPA transit data and BestNeighborhood's Walk Grade.
What crime costs Bensonhurst
Crime costs Bensonhurst about $867 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, 28% less than the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $36 million a year.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost rises to about $89 million a year, or $801 per resident.
How CrimeGrade™ works
A CrimeGrade™ shows how much crime an area has compared with the rest of the country, from A+ for the least crime to F for the most. Every neighborhood in the US is graded on the same scale, so a B in Bensonhurst means the same as a B anywhere else.
CrimeGrade™ starts from the crimes people report to police and measures each kind of crime against what it affects: people for assaults, homes for burglaries, parked cars for car thefts.
The rates on this page count crimes for every 1,000 people who live here, the way police departments report them.
Comparisons with US neighborhoods use the Census Bureau's block groups, small areas of about 1,400 residents, and count the people who live in each. The figures count crimes reported to police; many crimes, shoplifting above all, never are. Behind the grades, CrimeGrade™ tested 21,607 factors from 125 data families. For business owners, paid CrimeGrade™ location reports estimate crime at a single address for each type of business.
Where the numbers come from
Crime reports that police departments file with the FBI
State crime records and city crime data, where they are published
These are estimates of reported crime for whole areas, not a record of what happened on any one street. CrimeGrade™ updates them once a year and provides them free and without guarantee. Check local sources before you rely on them for a decision.
Schools in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, NY average a SchoolGrade of B+: 64% of students test proficient, against 55% projected for schools like them. Overall, they greatly exceed expectations. See schools in Bensonhurst on SchoolGrade
