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crime rate

crime rate

58 2.7
The number of crimes in an area per 1,000 people each year
  • noun
  • /kraɪm reɪt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : tasa de criminalidad
  • If you look at what happened in New York, the crime rate went way down, like way down.
  • high crime rate
  • violent crime rate
  • rising crime rates

And they announced that the crime rates had gone down this enormous amount.

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Examples

  • Most recently, investor confidence in Jamaica has been soured by the crime rate, which has required escalating expenditures on security.

    Academic text (1998)
  • The fall in the American crime rate is even more impressive when compared with the rest of the world.

    Academic text (2007)
  • "Tell me, has the crime rate really gone up in this country, as we are lead to believe?"

  • But here in Florida we're going to take a stand against the crime rate.

  • In fact, the campus crime rate is far lower than the national crime rate.

    Academic text (2013)
  • The crime rate is close to our zero tolerance goal.

  • It has the highest crime rate in Sector 13.

  • Don't forget your society has a very high crime rate compared to other Western countries.

    Blog text (5)
  • New York's crime rates continue to decline even as they have been rising in other big cities.

    Academic text (2002)
  • The city reported that the crime rate has decreased significantly over the past five years.

Antonyms

1.0

A place or condition that protects you from danger

408 2.4

The feeling of being safe from danger or threat

How High

crime rate
  • Specialized
58 2.7

Surface Forms

crime rate singular
crime rates plural

Morphology

crime + rate

The meaning 'the number of crimes per population' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'crime' (unlawful acts) with 'rate' (a measured frequency), so a learner who knows both words can infer the compound meaning. This noun+noun composition is a common, cross-linguistic way to express frequency or proportion and follows standard English compounding patterns, making it accessible to B1 learners.

Etymology

Crime rate comes from the simple idea of crime (bad acts) and rate (a number that shows 'how often' something happens). People count how many crimes happen 'per 1,000 people' in a place, so the term means the number that shows whether crime is high or low in a community.