Southside is a neighborhood of 36,800 residents in Lansing, about 4 miles south of downtown · Updated November 2026
Is Southside in Lansing safe?
Crime in Southside is high by national standards, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of C. Most US neighborhoods have little crime: 84% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than Southside. Property crime grades better than violent crime here, B against C-. Lansing as a whole grades B-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Southside run from A to F, so check the map below.
C
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 449 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
16% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Southside as a whole, and 84% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Southside scores 449.
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 Southside, Lansing, MI at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Southside in Lansing, 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 Southside
Aggravated assault stands out among C-graded neighborhoods. For the typical resident of a C-graded US neighborhood, the figure is 4.1 aggravated assaults a year per 1,000 residents; Southside has 10.1.
Vehicle theft at more than double the US rate. Southside has 6.2 car thefts a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.7 nationally.
How Southside compares within Lansing
Areas graded C are home to 52% of residents in Southside; 24% live in areas graded A or B and 24% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Southside run from A to F; 2% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
24%52%24%
A or B 24%C 52%D or F 24%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Southside has less crime than 3 of the 8 neighborhoods in Lansing. It covers much of the Southside area.
Is crime going up in Lansing?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in Lansing as a whole is up 17% and property crime is down 14%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 11 to 13 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 29 to 25 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, property crime fell 13%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
LansingUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Lansing. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Lansing
Violent, US
Property, Lansing
Property, US
2016
+3%
+4%
+0%
+15%
2017
+2%
+4%
+6%
+12%
2018
-0%
+0%
+6%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+35%
+4%
+12%
-8%
2021
+39%
+6%
-9%
-10%
2022
+14%
+5%
-5%
-6%
2023
+24%
+2%
-1%
-7%
2024
+17%
-4%
-14%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Southside
CrimeGrade™ estimates Southside has about 57 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 53% more than the US as a whole and close to Lansing 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.
The largest share of crime reported in Southside 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 Lansing
The Lansing Police Department polices Southside; these figures cover Lansing as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In Lansing as a whole, 68% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 42% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (68%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Homes (38%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (42%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (46%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (37%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (63%)
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 Southside compares with nearby neighborhoods
Of the 10 neighborhoods closest to Southside, 7 have less crime. Lakewood and Abbot have the least.
Parking lots, night lighting and walkability in Southside
Two things set Southside apart: it has 2.8 parking-lot spaces per resident, against 2.0 nationally, and 13% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. Places with a lot of parking-lot space tend to report more theft, and it runs high here.
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.2.8 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Higher than for 93% of residents of US city neighborhoods
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%Lower than for 88% 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. 79% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D+ (20 of 100)US: 21Lower than for 72% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.13% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 87% 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 Southside
Crime costs Southside about $1,981 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, 64% 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 $129 million a year, or $3,502 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 Southside 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 Southside, Lansing, MI average a SchoolGrade of F: 24% of students test proficient, against 22% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in Southside on SchoolGrade
