With a crime rate of 43 per one thousand residents, Palm Desert has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One's chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 23. Within California, more than 94% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Palm Desert.

Separately, it is always interesting and important to compare a city's crime rate with those of similarly sized communities - a fair comparison as larger cities tend to have more crime. NeighborhoodScout has done just that. With a population of 51,583, Palm Desert has a combined rate of violent and property crime that is very high compared to other places of similar population size. Regardless of whether Palm Desert does well or poorly compared to all other cities and towns in the US of all sizes, compared to places with a similar population, it fares badly. Few other communities of this size have a crime rate as high as Palm Desert.

Now let us turn to take a look at how Palm Desert does for violent crimes specifically, and then how it does for property crimes. This is important because the overall crime rate can be further illuminated by understanding if violent crime or property crimes (or both) are the major contributors to the general rate of crime in Palm Desert.

From our analysis, we discovered that violent crime in Palm Desert occurs at a rate higher than in most communities of all population sizes in America. The chance that a person will become a victim of a violent crime in Palm Desert; such as armed robbery, aggravated assault, rape or murder; is 1 in 282. This equates to a rate of 4 per one thousand inhabitants.

In addition, NeighborhoodScout found that a lot of the crime that takes place in Palm Desert is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In Palm Desert, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 25, which is a rate of 39 per one thousand population.

Importantly, we found that Palm Desert has one of the highest rates of motor vehicle theft in the nation according to our analysis of FBI crime data. This is compared to communities of all sizes, from the smallest to the largest. In fact, your chance of getting your car stolen if you live in Palm Desert is one in 210.