Medford Oregon, the thriving metropolis of 84,550, is a beautiful place to live, situated in the Rogue Valley. The natural beauty of the valley is enough for some to move there and make it their permanent home. But for others, they want to understand the area and what they would be getting into if they brought their family there. One of these is a concern regarding the crime of the area.
Medford Oregon has a noticeable amount of crime, sitting above the national average for both violent crimes and property crimes. Violent crimes are much less common than property crimes and these crimes, for the most part, do not bring physical harm to any person. But there is a culture of theft in the area, as gangs and hoodlums are raised in environments with seemingly no consequences.
The crime is a problem though and it is good to know what goes on whether you live in Medford, or are considering moving there.
High School Crime
When it comes to crime we often think of theft and robbery of hardened adults looking for unfair gain. But growing up in Medford I was rather oblivious to this type of crime and much more aware of other crimes going on. These crimes were more often than not high school students stealing from stores, either for the fun of it, or just to get something out of it.
But there comes a problem when it deals with the discipline of these teenagers. My brother, who was on the High School football team had many teammates that were caught stealing from stores and there was no discipline for these kids. They were slapped on the wrist and sent to school the next day. Not only were they caught, but they would still go back and steal it later, and then they would be playing in the big home game on Friday with stolen goods from stores in the area.
This act of defiance towards business owners who then have to pay for these goods from their own pockets does no good for the community in general. These petty crimes can turn into much bigger problems as these kids grow older. These kids who find themselves in sports stores looting clothing and making a run for it, don’t stop that habit as soon as they are graduated, and many of them will stay in the area, causing harm to the good citizens of the area.
This trend has already been seen in the community as the crime rates continue to grow in Medford.
Violent Crime
I would like to start with the violent crimes in the area. These types of crimes fall under murder, rape, robbery, and assault. Though these crimes do not happen as often as property crimes there is still a fair amount of these crimes happening in the area.
The national scale for these types of crimes occurring run on a scale of 1 to 100 with 100 being the worst. The national average sits at 22.7 much closer to the low crime criteria. In Medford, the violent crime rate sits at 28.2. This is not a huge difference and shows the occurrence of these types of crimes happening.
The chance of becoming a victim of a violent crime in the Medford area is a 1 in 200 chance. Of those four types of violent crimes, it is most likely to be assault, having the most occurrences in Medford above murder rape, and robbery.
To show how this compares to the average of the state of Oregon we can look at the violent crime rates. There is a 1 in 352 chance of falling victim to a violent crime.
These crimes are in no way ok and should cease to exist with their perpetrators facing consequences but sadly they occur and will continue to occur. The best way to deal with it is to remain safe which this article will briefly describe later.
Property Crime
Now onto the more pressing matter of property crimes in Medford. We talked about the city to the national average for violent crimes so let’s do the same for property crimes. The average for the national property crimes, on the same scale, of course, is 35.4. This is quite a bit higher than the violent crimes, which is actually comforting as these crimes, though still bad, do not bring physical harm as often to the victims.
In contrast, the average for the city of Medford alone is up at 87.1, much closer to the high crime rate under this criteria. These stats were saddening for me to see as I grew up in Medford and love my hometown. But there are definitely problems with crime in the city.
There is a 1 in 19 chance that you will become a victim of property crime, much higher than the 1 in 200 chance of violent crimes. The average of Oregon is 1 in 37 and the most likely property crime to fall victim to is theft, whether that be in money, vehicles, or personal items.
How To Stay Safe
There are many precautions to take when it comes to avoiding crime, but it is important to remember that one has to continue to live one’s life. You can’t lock yourself in your home forever, and relatively speaking, Medford isn’t a dangerous place. There are more dangerous areas than others.
But Medford has a very open layout with little to no alleys. This means that it will be difficult to find yourself where someone wishing to commit a crime will have a chance to do that. In most areas, there will be witnesses to what happened. So if you stay in the open you won’t have to deal with anything of great concern.
Whenever you are away from home it is a good idea to lock all your doors and leave some lights on to scare off anyone that is thinking about a burglary. It is a good idea to lock your doors at night as well.
But as I stated before, Medford isn’t too dangerous in the more populated open areas, as long as you are traveling with others or even alone you probably won’t run into too many problems.
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