Westside-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA Violent Crime Rates and Maps
Westside-Santa Barbara is a neighborhood of 21,200 residents in Santa Barbara, close to downtown · Updated November 2026
How common is violent crime in Westside-Santa Barbara?
Violent crime is high in Westside-Santa Barbara: a B+, with more violent crime than the neighborhoods where 74% of Americans live. Assaults make up 93% of it, and most of those are simple assaults, which involve no weapon and no serious injury. Santa Barbara as a whole grades A- for violent crime.
B+
Violent crime CrimeGrade™
Safety score 696 of 1,000More violent crime than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
26% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more violent crime than Westside-Santa Barbara as a whole, and 74% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a violent crime safety score of 860, a CrimeGrade™ of A. Westside-Santa Barbara scores 696.
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 Westside-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Westside-Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara, 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 Westside-Santa Barbara
Aggravated assaults happen on streets and sidewalks far more often than nationally. In Santa Barbara as a whole, 37% of reported aggravated assaults happen on streets and sidewalks, against 21% nationally.
How Westside-Santa Barbara compares within Santa Barbara
Low violent crime is the norm across Westside-Santa Barbara: 97% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and the rest in areas graded C. Violent crime grades across Westside-Santa Barbara run from A to C+.
97%
A or B 97%C 3%
Share of residents, by the violent crime CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Westside-Santa Barbara has less violent crime than 2 of the 8 neighborhoods in Santa Barbara. It covers much of the Westside-Santa Barbara and Mesa areas.
Is violent crime going up in Santa Barbara?
Reported violent crime in Santa Barbara as a whole has risen 44% since 2019. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 4.4 to 6.4 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7). Violent crime changed little from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Santa BarbaraUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Santa Barbara. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Santa Barbara
Violent, US
2016
-2%
+4%
2017
-6%
+4%
2018
+3%
+0%
2019
+0%
+0%
2020
-1%
+4%
2021
+11%
+6%
2022
+4%
+5%
2023
+37%
+2%
2024
+44%
-4%
Violent crime rates and types in Westside-Santa Barbara
CrimeGrade™ estimates Westside-Santa Barbara has about 15 reported violent crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 11% more than the US as a whole and close to Santa Barbara 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 Westside-Santa Barbara, about 93% 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 Santa Barbara
The Santa Barbara Police Department polices Westside-Santa Barbara; these figures cover Santa Barbara as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
Robberies happen most often on streets and sidewalks: 40% of them.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Robbery
Streets and sidewalks (40%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Aggravated assault
Streets and sidewalks (37%)
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 Westside-Santa Barbara and nearby neighborhoods
Of the 10 neighborhoods closest to Westside-Santa Barbara, 7 have less violent crime. Las Positas and Riviera have the least.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from Westside-Santa Barbara. 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, Westside-Santa Barbara is safer than 59% of them.
Transit, density and walkability in Westside-Santa Barbara
Among the traits that tend to go with violent crime, two set Westside-Santa Barbara apart: it has 87% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally, and 19 jobs for every 100 residents, against 45 for the US as a whole. Places where many residents live in dense blocks tend to report more robbery.
Transit serviceBuses and trains an hour at the evening rush. Places with busy transit tend to report more robbery. BestNeighborhood's Transit Grade for Westside-Santa Barbara: C (35 of 100).under 1 trip an hourUS: noneLower than for 89% 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.87% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 72% 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 assault.C+ (45 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 60% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more robbery.19 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Lower than for 70% 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 Westside-Santa Barbara
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, violent crime costs Westside-Santa Barbara about $23 million a year, or $1,075 per resident. The costs that reach a bill, such as medical care, lost work and the justice system, come to about $5.4 million, or $255 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
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.
