Southwest, Columbus, OH Violent Crime Rates and Maps
Southwest is a neighborhood of 19,800 residents in Columbus, about 4 miles southwest of downtown · Updated November 2026
How common is violent crime in Southwest?
Southwest grades B- for violent crime, with more of it than the neighborhoods where 83% of Americans live. Assaults make up 92% of it, and most of those are simple assaults, which involve no weapon and no serious injury. Columbus as a whole grades C- for violent crime.
B-
Violent crime CrimeGrade™
Safety score 568 of 1,000More violent crime than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
17% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more violent crime than Southwest as a whole, and 83% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a violent crime safety score of 860, a CrimeGrade™ of A. Southwest scores 568.
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 violent crime than most US neighborhoods.
How to read the map: each area's color compares its violent crime with the people who spend time there, on one national scale, from green for the least to red for the most. Each area gets its own color, so a busy downtown or nightlife strip can show red while the homes around it stay green. The interactive maps load faster on a solid connection. Compare high speed internet in Southwest, Columbus, OH at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Southwest in Columbus, 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 about violent crime in Southwest
Reported rapes run high for a neighborhood with a B for violent crime. Southwest has 0.89 reported rapes a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of a US neighborhood graded B for violent crime, the figure is 0.36.
How Southwest compares within Columbus
Most of Southwest grades well for violent crime: 70% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 13% in areas graded D or F. Violent crime grades across Southwest run from A- to D-.
70%17%13%
A or B 70%C 17%D or F 13%
Share of residents, by the violent crime CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Southwest has less violent crime than 29 of the 46 neighborhoods in Columbus. It covers much of the Greater Hilltop and Westland areas.
Is violent crime going up in Columbus?
Reported violent crime in Columbus as a whole has fallen 17% since 2019. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 5.2 to 4.3 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7). In 2024 alone, violent crime fell 17%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
ColumbusUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Columbus. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Columbus
Violent, US
2016
+5%
+4%
2017
+1%
+4%
2018
-0%
+0%
2019
+0%
+0%
2020
+20%
+4%
2021
+34%
+6%
2022
+3%
+5%
2023
+0%
+2%
2024
-17%
-4%
Violent crime rates and types in Southwest
CrimeGrade™ estimates Southwest has about 23 reported violent crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 68% more than the US as a whole and close to Columbus as a whole.
All violent crime
Assaults
Robbery
Reported crimes a year, per 1,000 residents. Violent crime here includes simple assaults, which the FBI's violent crime rate leaves out.
Assault is the most common violent crime in Southwest, about 92% of the total.
Each CrimeGrade™ here compares a violent crime with the people who spend time in an area, not only the people who live there. 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 violent crime happens in Columbus
The Columbus Police Department polices Southwest; these figures cover Columbus as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In Columbus as a whole, 50% of aggravated assaults happen at a home, against 53% nationally. Robberies happen most often on streets and sidewalks: 28% of them.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Robbery
Streets and sidewalks (28%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (50%)
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.
Violent crime in Southwest and nearby neighborhoods
Southwest has less violent crime than 8 of its 10 nearest neighborhoods; only Pinnacle Club and Downtown Columbus have less.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from Southwest. Beside each violent crime CrimeGrade™ is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer).
Compared with neighborhoods of similar size and density, Southwest has more violent crime than 63% of them.
Among the traits that tend to go with violent crime, two set Southwest apart: it has a Walk Grade of D- (10 of 100) on BestNeighborhood, against 21 for the US as a whole, and 15% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. Places like that tend to report less assault, yet assault runs higher here than that would suggest.
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 assault. 93% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D- (10 of 100)US: 21Lower than for 92% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery.15% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 85% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Transit serviceBuses and trains an hour at the evening rush. Places with busy transit tend to report more robbery. BestNeighborhood's Transit Grade for Southwest: D (13 of 100).2 trips an hourUS: noneLower than for 80% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more robbery.47 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Higher than for 67% 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 violent crime costs Southwest
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, violent crime costs Southwest about $39 million a year, or $1,992 per resident. The costs that reach a bill, such as medical care, lost work and the justice system, come to about $8.7 million, or $441 per resident.
Billed cost of violent crime per resident, per year
How CrimeGrade™ works
The violent crime CrimeGrade™ covers murder, rape, robbery and assault, from A+ for the least crime to F for the most, on one scale for the whole country.
It weighs each violent crime against the people who spend time in an area, so a busy downtown is graded on its workers and visitors as well as its residents.
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
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.
