Mar Lee is a neighborhood of 12,800 residents in Denver, about 4 miles southwest of downtown · Updated November 2026
Is Mar Lee in Denver safe?
Mar Lee is among the higher-crime places in the US: an overall CrimeGrade™ of D, with more crime than the neighborhoods where 91% of Americans live. Violent crime grades D+ and property crime F. Denver as a whole grades C-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Mar Lee run from C- to F, so check the map below.
D
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 184 of 1,000Less safe than nearly all US neighborhoodsi What this means
9% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Mar Lee as a whole, and 91% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Mar Lee scores 184.
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 Mar Lee, Denver, CO at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Mar Lee in Denver, 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 Mar Lee
Car thefts run high. Mar Lee has car thefts at about triple the US rate: 7.9 a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.7 nationally.
How Mar Lee compares within Denver
High crime is widespread across Mar Lee: 78% of residents live in areas graded D or F, and the rest in areas graded C. Grades across Mar Lee run from C- to F; every part of Mar Lee has more crime than the typical US neighborhood.
22%78%
C 22%D or F 78%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Mar Lee has less crime than 21 of the 53 neighborhoods in Denver. It covers much of the Southwestern Denver, Westwood, and Mar Lee areas.
Is crime going up in Denver?
Reported crime in Denver as a whole has risen since 2019: violent crime is up 29% and property crime up 25%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 7.6 to 9.9 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 38 to 47 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, property crime fell 17%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
DenverUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Denver. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Denver
Violent, US
Property, Denver
Property, US
2016
-13%
+4%
-4%
+15%
2017
-10%
+4%
-2%
+12%
2018
-2%
+0%
-1%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+17%
+4%
+27%
-8%
2021
+28%
+6%
+60%
-10%
2022
+40%
+5%
+68%
-6%
2023
+33%
+2%
+51%
-7%
2024
+29%
-4%
+25%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Mar Lee
CrimeGrade™ estimates Mar Lee has about 42 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 14% more than the US as a whole and 47% less than Denver 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 Mar Lee, about 28% 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 Denver
The Denver Police Department polices Mar Lee; these figures cover Denver as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In Denver as a whole, 42% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 45% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (42%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Parking lots and garages (47%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (45%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Parking lots and garages (29%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Streets and sidewalks (36%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (44%)
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 Mar Lee compares with nearby neighborhoods
Mar Lee has less crime than 5 of its 10 nearest neighborhoods.
Two things set Mar Lee apart: it has 6 jobs for every 100 residents, against 45 for the US as a whole, and 2.1% of its homes standing empty, against 7.1% nationally. Places like that tend to report less theft and robbery, yet theft and robbery run higher here than that would suggest.
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.6 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Lower than for 96% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary, vandalism and arson.2.1% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 94% 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.C (36 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 52% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft and car theft.2.6 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 93% 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 Mar Lee
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Mar Lee about $2,213 a year per household, 84% 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 $34 million a year, or $2,629 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 Mar Lee 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. Mar Lee is the other kind of example: few people work in, shop in or visit it, so its crime per resident looks lower than its CrimeGrade™ suggests.
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 Mar Lee, Denver, CO average a SchoolGrade of F: 18% of students test proficient, against 14% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in Mar Lee on SchoolGrade
