The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Van Buren, AR
Van Buren is a city of 32,500 in Crawford County, about 7 miles northeast of downtown Fort Smith · Updated November 2026
Is Van Buren, AR safe?
With an overall CrimeGrade™ of B+, Van Buren has moderate crime by national standards. Most US neighborhoods have less: 64% 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 Van Buren run from A+ to C-, so check the map below.
B+
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 749 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
36% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Van Buren as a whole, and 64% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Van Buren scores 749.
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 Van Buren, AR at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Van Buren, 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 Van Buren
Car thefts are less common than the crime level suggests. Crime overall in Van Buren runs 65% above the US rate, but car thefts run at less than half that rate: 1.2 a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.7 nationally.
One weak spot: burglary. It grades B in Van Buren, worse than in the neighborhoods where 82% of Americans live, against A- for property crime as a whole.
The safest and least safe parts of Van Buren
Low crime is the norm across Van Buren: 94% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and the rest in areas graded C. Grades across Van Buren run from A+ to C-; 31% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
94%
A or B 94%C 6%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Van Buren, the north side has the least crime and the south side the most.
Is crime going up in Van Buren?
Reported violent crime in Van Buren peaked in 2020 and has fallen 14% since, back near its 2019 level. Property crime is down 35% from 2019. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 5.0 to 4.8 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 32 to 21 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, violent crime rose 36% and property crime fell 28%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
Van BurenUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Van Buren. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Van Buren
Violent, US
Property, Van Buren
Property, US
2016
+16%
+4%
+22%
+15%
2017
-11%
+4%
-5%
+12%
2018
+21%
+0%
+5%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+12%
+4%
-4%
-8%
2021
-11%
+6%
-9%
-10%
2022
-8%
+5%
-1%
-6%
2023
-30%
+2%
-10%
-7%
2024
-4%
-4%
-35%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Van Buren
CrimeGrade™ estimates Van Buren has about 61 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 65% more than the US as a whole and 29% more than Arkansas.
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 Van Buren is assault, about 58% 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 Van Buren
Van Buren has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Van Buren, 70% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often at homes: 66% of them, against 34% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (70%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Car theft
Homes (72%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Theft from cars
Homes (66%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (66%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Aggravated assault
Homes (68%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Shares of the crimes reported to police, 2022 to 2024. Reports with no time recorded are left out of the times.
How Van Buren compares with nearby cities
Of the 7 cities closest to Van Buren, 5 have less crime. Cedarville and Rudy have the least.
Parking lots, transit and walkability in Van Buren
Two things set Van Buren apart: it has 3.3 parking-lot spaces per resident, against 2.0 nationally, and 3% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. Places with a lot of parking-lot space tend to report more theft; here theft sits near the national middle.
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.3.3 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Higher than for 89% 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 Van Buren: F (0 of 100).NoneUS: noneLower than for 84% 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. 89% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D- (11 of 100)US: 21Lower than for 73% of US city residents
Show all 6
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.3% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 82% 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.64% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 81% of US city residents
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.11.3 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Higher than for 63% 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 Van Buren
Crime costs Van Buren about $1,569 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, 30% 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 $46 million a year, or $1,414 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$1.1 million
$35
Rape
$890,000
$27
Robbery
$130,000
$4
Assault
$11 million
$341
Burglary
$1.3 million
$41
Theft
$2.1 million
$63
Vehicle theft
$580,000
$18
Arson
$38,000
$1
Vandalism
$1.6 million
$49
Total
$19 million
$580
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 Van Buren 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 Van Buren, AR average a SchoolGrade of C: 34% of students test proficient, against 39% projected for schools like them. Overall, they don't meet expectations. See schools in Van Buren on SchoolGrade
