Crime in Petersburg, Virginia
Major crime in Petersburg is 2.5 times the U.S. rate per resident: 3.4 times for persons crimes and 2.3 times for property crimes. Expected major crimes are up 5.3% 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.
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Murder stands out most, at 6.4 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in Petersburg 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 Petersburg
The middle half of Petersburg residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 136 and 292; the typical (median) resident's is 227.
- 0–500.0%
- 50–1002.5%
- 100–20045.1%
- 200–40041.4%
- 400+11.0%
Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.
Highest on weeknights
Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.
Major crime rose 5.3% in a year; across Virginia it fell 8.5%
Change in expected crimes, with Virginia as a whole in gray. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.
Petersburg against U.S. places with 25,000 to 50,000 residents
22 of the 960 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Petersburg; the middle of the group is 77. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
Petersburg 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, Ettrick (3 mi), is 74% below Petersburg's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in Petersburg
What are the most common crimes in Petersburg?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are other larceny (about 421 a year), theft from vehicle (about 339 a year) and aggravated assault (about 308 a year). Compared with the U.S., murder stands out most: 6.4 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. Petersburg's figures add up its 31 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- Petersburg has no published incident records in our data, so its estimate relies on agency totals and neighborhood characteristics.
- 85.4% 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: 33,881. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in Petersburg, Virginia." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/va/petersburg
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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Ettrick3 mi65
- Colonial Heights4 mi210
- Fort Lee5 mi24
- Hopewell8 mi98
- Chester10 mi112
- Bellwood14 mi155
- Meadowbrook16 mi92
- Bensley16 mi107