With a crime rate of 34 per one thousand residents, Portales 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 29. Within New Mexico, more than 89% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Portales.

Importantly, when you compare Portales to other communities of similar population, then Portales crime rate (violent and property crimes combined) is quite a bit higher than average. Regardless of how Portales does relative to all communities in America of all sizes, when NeighborhoodScout compared it to communities of similar population size, its crime rate per thousand residents stands out as higher than most.

Now let us turn to take a look at how Portales 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 Portales.

For Portales, we found that the violent crime rate is one of the highest in the nation, across communities of all sizes (both large and small). Violent offenses tracked included rape, murder and non-negligent manslaughter, armed robbery, and aggravated assault, including assault with a deadly weapon. According to NeighborhoodScout's analysis of FBI reported crime data, your chance of becoming a victim of one of these crimes in Portales is one in 152.

In addition, NeighborhoodScout found that a lot of the crime that takes place in Portales is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In Portales, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 36, which is a rate of 28 per one thousand population.