Appin (Boundary Increase) · Photo: Bill Fitzpatrick · CC BY-SA 3.0Bennettsville records more crime per resident than 97% of U.S. towns
Per resident, the graded crimes were down 34% from 2023 to 2025. Graded on crimes Bennettsville’s police reported from 2023 to 2025, it scores D− for safety: #64 of 87 graded towns in South Carolina. Add to that, each year brought 9.3 violent crimes and 36.1 incidents of property crime for every 1,000 residents (5.1 and 27.2 in the rest of South Carolina).
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of SC” is every other South Carolina city and town in the FBI’s tables; the U.S. figure is the FBI’s national estimate as published, averaged over the three years. The FBI publishes no national homicide or robbery rate in our data, so those compare with all U.S. cities and towns in its tables.
What stands out about safety in Bennettsville
Among South Carolina towns, closer to the middle
South Carolina’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Bennettsville’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 26% of the 87 South Carolina towns we grade, against 3% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
Reported crime is falling
Crime reported per resident fell from 2023 to 2025 by more than ordinary year-to-year swings, on the grade’s own score. Trend ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Bennettsville’s grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Both violent and property crime are higher than in most U.S. towns; property crime is the closer of the two to typical.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Bennettsville property | Rest of South Carolina property | Bennettsville violent | Rest of South Carolina violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 32.1 | 31.1 | 12.8 | 5.7 |
| 2023 | 41.7 | 30.4 | 13.8 | 5.6 |
| 2024 | 35.6 | 27.7 | 10.0 | 5.4 |
| 2025 | 31.7 | 23.6 | 4.8 | 4.5 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of South Carolina.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Bennettsville | Rest of South Carolina | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 12.8 | 5.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 13.8 | 5.6 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 10.0 | 5.4 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 4.8 | 4.5 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Bennettsville’s police reported 190 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 9.3 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.1 in the rest of South Carolina and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Bennettsville per 1,000 residents
Violent crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Property crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Crimes reported to police in 2025 per resident; one person can be the victim of more than one, and some reports involve visitors.
And about 5 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
274 crimes reported in 2025
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
36 violent and 238 property, as reported to the FBI by Bennettsville’s police.
Four people died in crashes on Bennettsville’s roads in 2019–2023
Bennettsville had 4 fatal crashes in five years, in which four people died; 1 was a pedestrian.
That is about what is typical for South Carolina towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (8.8 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Bennettsville’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Bennettsville’s own rate (10.3) is context, not a ranking.
Deaths are counted where the crash happened, not where the people lived: a highway through town adds through-traffic deaths, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Town rates sit below state and U.S. rates because a third of fatal crashes happen outside any town. Road safety is described here and is not part of the Safety Grade. Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023.
Bennettsville and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bennettsville | D− | 9.3 | 36.1 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
South Carolina towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bennettsville | D− | 9.3 | 36.1 |
| Lyman | B | 1.1 | 9.4 |
| Clover | B | 1.5 | 8.6 |
| Clinton | D− | 9.5 | 40.1 |
| Hartsville | D− | 15.2 | 51.4 |
| Union | D− | 10.6 | 69.3 |
The five graded South Carolina towns closest to Bennettsville’s population (7,565), by grade.
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- It’s reported crime. Only incidents reported to and recorded by police appear here. Many crimes are never reported to police.
- One number for all of Bennettsville. A town-wide rate doesn’t show where incidents happen, and that can differ a lot from one part of town to another.
- Visitors count too. Incidents involving people who work, shop or visit are counted against Bennettsville’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (7,500 in 2025); our figure for Bennettsville is 7,565 (2025 Census estimate).
- Gaps are real gaps. A missing year means the department didn’t report a full year, not that nothing happened.
How the grade is calculated, for every town: How TownRatings grades safety →
Questions about safety in Bennettsville
Is Bennettsville, SC safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Bennettsville reports more crime per resident than 97% of U.S. towns, a D− Safety Grade and #64 of 87 in South Carolina. Its police reported 9.3 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.1 in the rest of South Carolina and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Bennettsville?
9.3 violent and 36.1 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of South Carolina reports 5.1 and 27.2; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Bennettsville?
Bennettsville’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Bennettsville”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Bennettsville.
Crime: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime Data Explorer: offenses known to law enforcement by city, 2025, and state and national rates. Counts are crimes reported to police, not convictions. The Safety Grade is our own summary of that data, not an official rating. Road deaths: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023. This isn’t an official statement of public safety. In an emergency, call 911.