Crown Heights is a neighborhood of 67,400 residents in Brooklyn, about 3 miles southeast of downtown · Updated November 2026
Is Crown Heights in Brooklyn safe?
Crime in Crown Heights is high, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of F. Most US neighborhoods have far less: 93% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Crown Heights. Violent crime grades C+ and property crime F. Brooklyn as a whole grades C-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Crown Heights run from C+ to F, so check the map below.
F
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 31 of 1,000Less safe than nearly all US neighborhoodsi What this means
7% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Crown Heights as a whole, and 93% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Crown Heights scores 31.
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 Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Crown Heights 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 Crown Heights
Burglary is a strength. Crown Heights grades F for property crime, but burglary grades A, better than in the neighborhoods where 59% 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.
How Crown Heights compares within Brooklyn
High crime is widespread across Crown Heights: 93% of residents live in areas graded D or F, and the rest in areas graded C. Grades across Crown Heights run from C+ to F; every part of Crown Heights has more crime than the typical US neighborhood.
93%
C 7%D or F 93%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Crown Heights has less crime than 8 of the 39 neighborhoods in Brooklyn. It covers much of the Crown Heights and Ditmas Park 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 Crown Heights
CrimeGrade™ estimates Crown Heights has about 54 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 44% more than the US as a whole and close to 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.
Assault is the most common crime in Crown Heights, about 47% of everything reported, and it also accounts for 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 Crown Heights; 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 Crown Heights compares with nearby neighborhoods
Crown Heights has less crime than 5 of its 10 nearest neighborhoods.
Density, parking lots and walkability in Crown Heights
Two things set Crown Heights 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 97% 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. 100% of residents here live in walkable areas.A+ (95 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 97% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
Transit serviceBuses and trains an hour at the evening rush. Places with busy transit tend to report more theft and robbery. BestNeighborhood's Transit Grade for Crown Heights: B (63 of 100).77 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 94% 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 Crown Heights
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Crown Heights about $1,505 a year per household, 25% more than the US figure of $1,205.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost comes to about $111 million a year, or $1,643 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 Crown Heights 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 Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY average a SchoolGrade of D+: 48% of students test proficient, against 44% projected for schools like them. Overall, they greatly exceed expectations. See schools in Crown Heights on SchoolGrade
