Crime by type
Chicago Crime by Type
The offense categories behind Chicago's numbers, from high-volume property crime to the violence concentrated on the South and West sides.
Overview
What drives crime in Chicago
Property crime makes up the largest share of Chicago's reported incidents, but the city is best known for the geographic concentration of its violent offenses. The same category — say, robbery or shooting-related assault — can be rare on much of the North Side and routine in a handful of South and West Side corridors.
By category
Rates and odds by crime type
Estimated annual rate per 100,000 residents and your everyday odds, with risk level relative to the U.S. average.
Drill down
What's actually reported in Chicago
The most common specific offenses behind each category, from reported incident descriptions.
Theft 71,158 reports
Assault 59,819 reports
Vandalism 26,389 reports
Other 24,217 reports
Retail Theft 14,265 reports
Burglary 10,758 reports
Detail
Crime types in Chicago, explained
Motor Vehicle Theft
Vehicle theft and theft from cars are common across the city and have surged in recent years, hitting both neighborhood streets and downtown parking near transit and commercial districts.
Theft / Larceny
Theft is the highest-volume category citywide, spanning retail theft in the Loop and along the Magnificent Mile, package theft, and items taken from vehicles.
Burglary
Break-ins affect homes and businesses across many neighborhoods and tend to rise in areas with more vacant or commercial property rather than in the densest residential lakefront blocks.
Aggravated Assault
Aggravated assault — including shooting-related incidents — is a core driver of Chicago's violent total and is heavily concentrated in specific South and West Side community areas.
Robbery
Robberies cluster along commercial corridors, transit hubs, and El stations, and they remain more frequent here than the citywide average suggests for any one neighborhood.
Homicide
Homicide gives Chicago its national headlines through sheer count, but it is intensely localized; a small set of South and West Side neighborhoods carries the large majority of the city's total.