South Dakota crime data — UnsolvedWatch

All eight FBI Part I offenses

Trailing 12 months · per 100,000 residents

Offense	Count	Per 100k	YoY
Homicide	17	1.8	-48.5%
Rape	302	32.9	-26.2%
Robbery	112	12.2	-45.4%
Aggravated assault	1,661	180.7	-25.3%
Burglary	1,045	113.7	-36.5%
Larceny	7,239	787.4	-29.7%
Motor vehicle theft	864	94.0	-44.5%
Arson	54	5.9	0.0%

Crime trends since 2023

All offenses indexed to 100 at January 2023

Each offense is rescaled so it equals 100 in January 2023. A line above 100 means more offenses reported now than then; below 100 means fewer. Trailing 12-month totals are used to smooth out seasonality. Hover the chart to inspect any month.

Indexed to January 2023 to exclude the 2020–2022 period when many U.S. law enforcement agencies were still transitioning to the FBI's NIBRS reporting standard. Including those years would conflate more agencies reporting with more crime occurring.

How to read this chart

A declining line can mean several things: fewer crimes occurred (effective policing, courts, or deterrence at work), fewer crimes were reported (agencies dropped out of NIBRS), or crimes were reclassified into different categories. A rising line carries the same ambiguity in reverse. FBI data captures only what agencies submit — see The Gap to verify which agencies in South Dakota are still reporting.

What this data says

South Dakota reported 17 homicides in the trailing 12 months — a rate of 1.8 per 100,000 residents. That's a 48.5% decrease compared to the prior 12-month window.

South Dakota's rate sits below the national median. It ranks #39 of 51 states by homicides per capita (1 = highest). The national median across all states is 3.2 per 100,000.

Other notable year-over-year shifts: rape is down 26.2%, robbery is down 45.4%, aggravated assault is down 25.3%.

All figures are pulled directly from the FBI's Crime Data Explorer, which aggregates monthly submissions from local law enforcement agencies. Numbers reflect offenses reported to police — not all crime, and not crime that was solved. Rate calculations use 2024 U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.