The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Joliet, IL
Joliet is the fourth-largest city in Illinois, with 125,500 residents in Will County, about 35 miles southwest of downtown Chicago · Updated November 2026
Is Joliet, IL safe?
With an overall CrimeGrade™ of B+, Joliet has moderate crime by national standards. Most US neighborhoods have less: 64% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime. Violent and property crime both grade B+ here. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Joliet run from A+ to D, so check the map below.
B+
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 748 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
36% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Joliet as a whole, and 64% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Joliet scores 748.
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 Joliet, IL at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Joliet, 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 Joliet
Burglary is the exception. Joliet grades B+ for property crime, but burglary grades B-, worse than in the neighborhoods where 90% of Americans live.
The safest and least safe parts of Joliet
Most of Joliet grades well: 81% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 2% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Joliet run from A+ to D; 35% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
81%17%
A or B 81%C 17%D or F 2%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Joliet, the northwest side has the least crime and the east side the most.
Is crime going up in Joliet?
Reported crime in Joliet has fallen since 2019: violent crime is down 32% and property crime down 16%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 5.0 to 3.4 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 14 to 12 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, violent crime fell 15% and property crime rose 21%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
JolietUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police agencies that serve Joliet. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Joliet
Violent, US
Property, Joliet
Property, US
2016
-35%
+4%
+29%
+15%
2017
-26%
+4%
+21%
+12%
2018
-35%
+0%
+7%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-5%
+4%
-13%
-8%
2021
-32%
+6%
-40%
-10%
2022
+1%
+5%
-29%
-6%
2023
-20%
+2%
-30%
-7%
2024
-32%
-4%
-16%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Joliet
CrimeGrade™ estimates Joliet has about 38 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, about the same as the US as a whole and close to Illinois.
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 Joliet is assault, about 43% 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 Joliet
Joliet has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Joliet, 29% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often at other places: 33% of them, against 7% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Other places (35%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (30%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Other places (33%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Other places (28%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Streets and sidewalks (29%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (40%)
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 Joliet compares with nearby cities
Joliet has the most crime of its 10 nearest cities.
Parking lots, night lighting and walkability in Joliet
Joliet looks like a typical city on the traits that tend to go with crime.
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.2.7 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Higher than for 79% of US city residents
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 70% 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. 75% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D+ (21 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 61% of US city residents
Show all 6
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.9.0 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 63% of US city residents
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.21% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 59% 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 Joliet: D+ (18 of 100).2 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 56% of US city residents
BestNeighborhood, a sister site of CrimeGrade™, ranks the neighborhoods of Joliet on shops, parks, home prices, getting around and more.
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 Joliet
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Joliet about $1,254 a year per household, about the same as the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $55 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 $165 million a year, or $1,313 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$5.7 million
$46
Rape
$4.3 million
$34
Robbery
$1.7 million
$14
Assault
$23 million
$187
Burglary
$5.1 million
$41
Theft
$5.2 million
$41
Vehicle theft
$4.0 million
$32
Arson
$270,000
$2
Vandalism
$5.3 million
$43
Total
$55 million
$439
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 Joliet 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 Joliet, IL average a SchoolGrade of C: 40% of students test proficient, against 23% projected for schools like them. Overall, they exceed expectations. See schools in Joliet on SchoolGrade
