Missouri’s 20 Riskiest Places for Women Right Now

All crime is terrible, but violence against women is especially tragic. There's a new compilation of data that reveals the 20 locations in Missouri where women face the highest crime risk.

Here's data pulled from the most recent full-year of FBI UCR city-level data and it's limited to cities and towns in Missouri with 10,000 residents or more to avoid per capita numbers causing an unusually high ratio for a small town. Here's how I asked the database query to create the ranking:

50% — Violent-crime rate: murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
50% — Reported rape rate: rape offenses per 100,000 residents.

20 Missouri Places Where Women Face the Highest Crime Risk

Gallery Credit: Google Maps Street View

Here are the detailed numbers for each of these Missouri places:

Rank	City	Violent crime /100K	Rape /100K	Women's Risk Score*
1	Kansas City	1,547.1	74.7	810.9
2	St. Louis	1,367.1	58.1	712.6
3	Springfield	1,178.1	104.4	641.3
4	Sikeston	1,029.6	49.9	539.8
5	Bellefontaine Neighbors	945.1	9.7	477.4
6	Raytown	864.1	69.4	466.8
7	St. Joseph	728.6	178.2	453.4
8	Grandview	674.6	111.1	392.9
9	Ferguson	712.1	28.0	370.1
10	Cape Girardeau	623.3	51.5	337.4
11	Bridgeton	651.4	17.8	334.6
12	Independence	571.2	89.8	330.5
13	Joplin	560.4	89.7	325.1
14	Sedalia	545.0	85.6	315.3
15	Branson	477.6	84.7	281.2
16	Hazelwood	490.3	56.7	273.5
17	Overland	527.4	6.5	267.0
18	Lebanon	417.5	102.8	260.2
19	Kirksville	417.8	57.2	237.5
20	St. Ann	406.5	55.1	230.8

Here are some takeaways:

Kansas City is the clear No. 1. It reported 7,914 violent crimes in 2024, including 382 rapes.
St. Louis is No. 2. The city recorded 3,791 violent crimes, including 161 rapes.
Springfield is particularly notable for its rape rate. It reported 178 rapes, producing a rape rate of 104.4 per 100,000, more than twice Missouri's reported statewide rate of about 45.2.
St. Joseph has the highest reported rape rate in this 20-city group. Its 2024 data show 125 rapes, or 178.2 per 100,000, along with a violent-crime rate of 728.6.
Lebanon is an interesting outlier. It doesn't rank especially high for overall violent crime — 417.5 per 100,000 — but its reported rape rate was 102.8 per 100,000

It's important to emphasize that every single one of these Missouri towns and cities have neighborhoods and regions that are very safe and likely enjoyable places to live. Every city has pockets where violent crime are more likely and many are very small in relation to the overall area. Just because these Missouri towns end up on rankings like this doesn't make them a bad place to live. It's just an alert that ladies need to have situational awareness in these areas. Even one violent crime is one too many.