The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Santa Paula, CA
Santa Paula is a city of 33,800 in Ventura County, about 12 miles northeast of downtown Oxnard · Updated November 2026
Is Santa Paula, CA safe?
With an overall CrimeGrade™ of B+, Santa Paula has moderate crime by national standards. Most US neighborhoods have less: 63% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime. Property crime grades better than violent crime here, A- against B+. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Santa Paula run from A+ to C+, so check the map below.
B+
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 757 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
37% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Santa Paula as a whole, and 63% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Santa Paula scores 757.
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 Santa Paula, CA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Santa Paula, 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 Santa Paula
Car thefts and thefts both run low. In Santa Paula, each runs at about half the US rate: 1.4 car thefts and 6.8 thefts a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.7 and 13.1 nationally.
The safest and least safe parts of Santa Paula
Most of Santa Paula grades well: 90% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and the rest in areas graded C. Grades across Santa Paula run from A+ to C+; 24% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
90%10%
A or B 90%C 10%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Santa Paula, the west side has the least crime and the east side the most.
Is crime going up in Santa Paula?
Since 2019, reported property crime in Santa Paula is down 34%, while violent crime has held about steady. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 3.0 to 3.3 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 13 to 8.9 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, violent crime fell 13%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
Santa PaulaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Santa Paula. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Santa Paula
Violent, US
Property, Santa Paula
Property, US
2016
-13%
+4%
-16%
+15%
2017
+12%
+4%
+7%
+12%
2018
-2%
+0%
+13%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+10%
+4%
+6%
-8%
2021
+2%
+6%
-20%
-10%
2022
+6%
+5%
-19%
-6%
2023
+26%
+2%
-37%
-7%
2024
+9%
-4%
-34%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Santa Paula
CrimeGrade™ estimates Santa Paula has about 24 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 35% less than the US as a whole and 39% less than 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.
Assault is the most common crime in Santa Paula, about 41% 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 Santa Paula
Santa Paula has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Santa Paula, 39% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often on streets and sidewalks: 34% of them, against 18% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (39%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (44%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Streets and sidewalks (34%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (29%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (48%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (47%)
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 Santa Paula compares with nearby cities
Of the 7 cities closest to Santa Paula, 5 have less crime. Sulphur Springs and Somis have the least.
Density, walkability and parking lots in Santa Paula
Two things set Santa Paula apart: it has 56% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally, and a Walk Grade of C (35 of 100) on BestNeighborhood, against 21 for the US as a whole. Even so, 51% of residents in Santa Paula live in car-dependent areas, where most errands take a car. Places like that 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.56% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 86% 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 (35 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 85% of US city residents
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.0.8 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Lower than for 83% 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.6.8 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 82% of US city residents
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.24 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Lower than for 82% of US city residents
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary, vandalism and arson.3.8% of homesUS: 7.1%Lower than for 76% 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 Santa Paula
Crime costs Santa Paula about $1,189 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, about the same as 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 $44 million a year, or $1,297 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$2.7 million
$79
Rape
$880,000
$26
Robbery
$650,000
$19
Assault
$4.3 million
$126
Burglary
$370,000
$11
Theft
$1.2 million
$35
Vehicle theft
$720,000
$21
Arson
$150,000
$4
Vandalism
$890,000
$26
Total
$12 million
$348
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 Santa Paula 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. Santa Paula 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
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 Santa Paula, CA average a SchoolGrade of C-: 32% of students test proficient, against 29% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in Santa Paula on SchoolGrade
