Crime in DeKalb, Illinois
Major crime in DeKalb is 1.6 times the U.S. rate per resident: 8% lower for persons crimes and 1.7 times for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 1.3% from a year earlier.
Modeled estimates per resident, not counts of incidents. How we calculated this
Index: crimes per resident compared with the U.S., where 100 is the U.S. rate and 200 is twice it.
Check an address in DeKalb
Rape / sexual assault stands out most, at 3.1 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in DeKalb for each type, and the index against the U.S. rate per resident.
Citywide indexWhere the middle half of residents live
Property crimes
Social disorder
How crime varies across DeKalb
The middle half of DeKalb residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 69 and 223; the typical (median) resident's is 94. The citywide figure (160) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5017.9%
- 50–10040.1%
- 100–20016.1%
- 200–40016.2%
- 400+9.7%
Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.
Highest on weekend daytimes
Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.
Major crime fell 1.3% in a year; across Illinois it fell 9.6%
Change in expected crimes, with Illinois as a whole in gray. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.
DeKalb against U.S. places with 25,000 to 50,000 residents
110 of the 960 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than DeKalb; the middle of the group is 77. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
DeKalb has a higher major-crime index than all of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, Sycamore (5 mi), is 72% below DeKalb's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in DeKalb
What are the most common crimes in DeKalb?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are other larceny (about 506 a year), shoplifting (about 351 a year) and theft from vehicle (about 110 a year). Compared with the U.S., rape / sexual assault stands out most: 3.1 times the U.S. rate per resident.
How we calculated this
Each police agency's crimes, as reported to the FBI, are spread across the census block groups it serves using population, jobs, points of interest and, where available, local incident records. DeKalb's figures add up its 28 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- DeKalb's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
- 51.4% of residents live in block groups whose estimate has high confidence (80% interval within about 5x).
- Rates are per resident, so places where many people work or visit but few live, such as downtowns, airports and stadiums, can read high.
- Disorderly conduct and trespassing are modeled, because the FBI records them only through arrests.
- Residents: 43,233. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in DeKalb, Illinois." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/il/dekalb
Use these numbers in your product
Any U.S. address by API or MCP, free for 10,000 lookups a month.
Get a free API keyNearest cities we publish
Major-crime index, U.S. = 100