The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Hawthorne, CA
Hawthorne is a city of 85,700 in Los Angeles County, about 11 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles · Updated November 2026
Is Hawthorne, CA safe?
Crime in Hawthorne is high, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of D. Most US neighborhoods have far less: 90% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Hawthorne. Violent crime grades C- and property crime F. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Hawthorne run from A- to F, so check the map below.
D
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 197 of 1,000Less safe than nearly all US neighborhoodsi What this means
10% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Hawthorne as a whole, and 90% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Hawthorne scores 197.
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 Hawthorne, CA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Hawthorne, 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 Hawthorne
Robberies and car thefts both run high. In Hawthorne, each runs at about triple the US rate: 2.1 robberies and 7.6 car thefts a year per 1,000 residents, against 0.62 and 2.7 nationally.
The safest and least safe parts of Hawthorne
High crime is widespread across Hawthorne: 92% of residents live in areas graded D or F, and 5% in areas graded A or B. Grades across Hawthorne run from A- to F; 1% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
92%
A or B 5%C 3%D or F 92%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Hawthorne, the southwest side has the least crime and the north side the most.
Is crime going up in Hawthorne?
Reported violent crime in Hawthorne peaked in 2021 and has fallen 12% since, back near its 2019 level. Property crime is up 38% from 2019. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 7.6 to 7.2 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 18 to 24 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
HawthorneUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Hawthorne. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Hawthorne
Violent, US
Property, Hawthorne
Property, US
2016
+0%
+4%
+66%
+15%
2017
-9%
+4%
+50%
+12%
2018
-4%
+0%
+14%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+2%
+4%
+6%
-8%
2021
+7%
+6%
+3%
-10%
2022
+0%
+5%
+20%
-6%
2023
-13%
+2%
+31%
-7%
2024
-5%
-4%
+38%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Hawthorne
CrimeGrade™ estimates Hawthorne has about 40 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 7% more than the US as a whole and close to California.
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.
Theft is the most common crime in Hawthorne, about 32% of everything reported.
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 Hawthorne
Hawthorne has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Hawthorne, 38% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often at homes: 27% of them, against 34% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (38%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (51%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Theft from cars
Homes (27%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Vandalism
Homes (32%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (43%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Aggravated assault
Homes (46%)
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 Hawthorne compares with nearby cities
Of the 10 cities closest to Hawthorne, 7 have less crime. Manhattan Beach and El Segundo have the least.
Density, parking lots and walkability in Hawthorne
Two things set Hawthorne apart: it has 95% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally, and 0.4 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.95% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 96% of US city residents
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.0.4 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Lower than for 93% of US city residents
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.C+ (44 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 89% of US city residents
Show all 6
Lit at nightSatellite images show which neighborhoods are lit at night, a sign of busy streets and businesses. Brightly lit places tend to report more theft and vandalism.100% where people liveUS: 78%Higher than for 92% of US city residents
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.6.6 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 83% of US city residents
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 Hawthorne: C- (28 of 100).7 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 77% of US city residents
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 Hawthorne
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Hawthorne about $1,905 a year per household, 58% 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 $216 million a year, or $2,519 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$16 million
$184
Rape
$1.9 million
$22
Robbery
$5.7 million
$66
Assault
$15 million
$171
Burglary
$2.1 million
$25
Theft
$5.6 million
$66
Vehicle theft
$10 million
$117
Arson
$360,000
$4
Vandalism
$2.0 million
$23
Total
$58 million
$677
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 Hawthorne 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
Published research on what crime costs victims and communities
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 Hawthorne, CA average a SchoolGrade of C: 34% of students test proficient, against 28% projected for schools like them. Overall, they greatly exceed expectations. See schools in Hawthorne on SchoolGrade
