FBI Data Reveals Who Faces the Highest Risk of Becoming a Crime Victim in America

A new analysis from Omega Law Group of the FBI’s 2024 Reported Crimes in the Nation data has moved beyond national and state-level totals to ask a more personal question: who is actually most at risk of becoming a crime victim in America? The answer, researchers found, depends heavily on age and gender.

With a violent crime occurring somewhere in the country every 25.9 seconds and an estimated 1,221,345 violent crimes recorded in 2024, the study drilled into victim-level data. It identified three distinct at-risk profiles: children disproportionately exposed to sexual violence, working-age adults who bear the brunt of violent and property crime, and older Americans increasingly targeted for financial exploitation.

Children emerged as a uniquely vulnerable group when it comes to sexual violence. Of 219,266 sexual offense victims recorded in 2024, 93,244 were under the age of 16, representing 42.5% of all victims, while children aged 11 to 15 alone accounted for 55,278 victims, making early adolescence the single age range at greatest risk. Researchers note these figures reflect a consistent nationwide pattern, though they capture only incidents reported to authorities.

For working-age adults, assault is the dominant threat. Of 3,804,923 assault victims recorded in 2024, adults aged 21 to 35 accounted for 1,410,085 victims, or 37.1% of the national total, with adults aged 31 to 35 representing the single highest share at 483,885 victims. Property crime follows a related pattern, with motor vehicle theft, larceny, burglary, and property damage disproportionately affecting adults aged 26 to 35. Robbery victims skew somewhat younger, with 50,046 victims aged 16 to 25 accounting for 25.6% of all robbery offenses, and adults aged 21 to 25 also represented a disproportionate share of homicide victims, accounting for 2,211 deaths, or 12.6% of the national total.

At the other end of the age spectrum, the risk shifts decisively toward financial crime. Adults aged 66 and older accounted for 175,696 fraud victims in 2024, 22.2% of the national total, while also representing 29.1% of counterfeiting and forgery victims and 14% of burglary victims. Strikingly, adults over 66 were victimized by fraud at a rate 44.8 times higher than adults under 25, a gap researchers attribute to both accumulated wealth and the targeted opportunism that often defines financial crimes against seniors.

Gender proved just as significant a factor as age. Women accounted for 57% of all crime victims nationally in 2024, compared with 42.4% of male victims, and that gap widened dramatically for specific offense types. Women represented 85% of sex offense victims, 81.5% of human trafficking victims, and 77.2% of kidnapping and abduction victims. The pattern reverses sharply for homicide, where 76% of the 17,588 recorded victims were male, making men 3.3 times more likely than women to be killed. Men also accounted for 66.7% of robbery victims and 68.1% of extortion and blackmail victims.

Taken together, the data paints a layered picture of risk across the American life course. Children face heightened exposure to sexual exploitation, young adults absorb the greatest share of violent and property crime, and older adults are increasingly targeted for fraud once they have accumulated savings and assets. Researchers also caution that these figures likely understate the true scale of victimization, since fewer than half of all violent crimes are reported to police, with reporting rates especially low for sexually violent offenses.

“These numbers put faces on statistics we see every day in our practice,” said a spokesperson for Omega Law Group, PC. “Whether it’s a young adult recovering from an assault or an older family member targeted by fraud, understanding who is most at risk helps us fight harder for the victims who come to us for help.”