Ventura County crime statistics for 2025 show a county that clears crime well above the California average across every offense category, while burglary still skews toward businesses more than homes. Law enforcement agencies across Ventura County reported 1,163 burglaries to the California Department of Justice in 2025, and 654 of them — 56.2 percent — were non-residential. Residential burglary accounted for the other 509.
Last updated 20 August 2026 · Isaac Roberts, Security Specialist, Guardian National Security (PPO #120268)
This 2026 report covers 2025 data — the most recent complete official year available from the California Department of Justice.
Ventura County Crime Statistics at a Glance
- 9,745 property offenses were reported across the county in 2025 — a rate of 1,172.9 per 100,000 residents.
- 56.2 percent of burglaries were commercial, not residential — below California’s statewide share of 62.2 percent.
- Ventura County clears crime above the state average in every category measured: burglary at 16.8 percent versus California’s 10.2 percent, and property crime overall at 19.2 percent versus 11.2 percent.
- Of the commercial burglaries with a recorded time of day, 58.8 percent happened at night.
- Violent crime rose 38.1 percent since 2021 even as property crime fell 19.9 percent and burglary fell 32.8 percent over the same five years.
- 1,036 vehicles were stolen, and 2,294 additional larcenies targeted vehicles without taking them.
- Population: 830,851 (U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
Every figure on this page comes from the California Department of Justice’s Crimes and Clearances collection or the U.S. Census Bureau, and every one can be re-derived from the raw files linked in the methodology section.
Ventura County Recorded 9,745 Property Offenses in 2025
Ventura County recorded 9,745 property offenses in 2025 across all 18 reporting law enforcement agencies in the county. That breaks into 7,546 larcenies, 1,163 burglaries and 1,036 vehicle thefts. Against a population of 830,851, the property crime rate was 1,172.9 per 100,000 residents.
| Category | Offenses | Share of property crime | Rate per 100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Larceny-theft | 7,546 | 77.4% | 908.2 |
| Burglary | 1,163 | 11.9% | 140.0 |
| Motor vehicle theft | 1,036 | 10.6% | 124.7 |
| Total property | 9,745 | 100% | 1,172.9 |
Violent crime is counted separately and is not included in any property figure on this page. Agencies reported 2,427 violent offenses in the county in 2025, of which 1,395 were cleared.
Ventura County’s Commercial Burglary Share Runs Below the California Average
Ventura County’s commercial burglary share runs below the California average. Of the 1,163 burglaries reported across the county in 2025, 654 were non-residential and 509 were residential — a 56.2 to 43.8 split.
That pattern runs in the same direction as the Inland Empire, where the commercial share of burglary also sits below the statewide figure, though Ventura’s gap to the state average is wider. California as a whole reported 109,596 burglaries in 2025, of which 68,153 — 62.2 percent — were non-residential. Ventura County’s homes absorb a larger share of burglary risk than the state average, not a smaller one.
| Area | Total burglary | Non-residential | Residential | Commercial share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ventura County | 1,163 | 654 | 509 | 56.2% |
| California | 109,596 | 68,153 | 41,443 | 62.2% |
Most Commercial Burglaries With a Known Time Happen at Night
Most Ventura County commercial burglaries with a recorded time happen at night. Of the 654 non-residential burglaries in 2025, agencies logged 381 as night and 267 as day, leaving 6 with no time recorded. Among the 648 that carry a time, 58.8 percent were night burglaries.
The 6 unrecorded cases are only 0.9 percent of all commercial burglaries — a smaller unknown share than some neighboring counties report — so the night figure describes nearly all commercial burglaries, not a partial subset. This page does not claim to know how the unrecorded cases would split.
| Time recorded | Burglaries | Share of all commercial | Share of those with a time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Night | 381 | 58.3% | 58.8% |
| Day | 267 | 40.8% | 41.2% |
| Not recorded | 6 | 0.9% | — |
Residential burglary splits almost evenly by comparison: 248 night against 261 day, with zero unrecorded cases. Homes are entered on a near-even split; businesses are entered mostly after dark. That is the operational case for overnight coverage at industrial and warehouse sites rather than daytime-only staffing.
Ventura County Clears Crime Well Above the California Average
Ventura County clears crime well above the California average, across every offense category CA DOJ publishes. Agencies in the county cleared 195 of 1,163 burglaries in 2025 — 16.8 percent, compared with a statewide burglary clearance rate of 10.2 percent. The gap holds just as clearly in every other category measured.
Motor vehicle theft cleared at 14.3 percent against California’s 6.6 percent — more than double. Larceny-theft cleared at 20.2 percent against 12.6 percent statewide, and overall property clearance in the county was 19.2 percent against 11.2 percent. Violent crime cleared at 57.5 percent of 2,427 offenses, well above California’s 45.9 percent.
| Offense | Ventura County | California |
|---|---|---|
| Burglary | 16.8% | 10.2% |
| Motor vehicle theft | 14.3% | 6.6% |
| Larceny-theft | 20.2% | 12.6% |
| All property | 19.2% | 11.2% |
| Violent | 57.5% | 45.9% |
The dataset does not split clearances into residential and non-residential, so this page does not report a commercial burglary clearance rate. That figure is not published and is not estimated here. A higher clearance rate does not mean a lower risk of loss before an arrest happens — it describes what occurs after a crime, not prevention.
Violent Crime Rose 38.1 Percent While Burglary Fell Sharply
Violent crime in Ventura County rose 38.1 percent between 2021 and 2025, from 1,758 offenses to 2,427, even as every property category measured here fell. Total property crime dropped 19.9 percent over the same five years, burglary fell 32.8 percent, commercial burglary specifically fell 41.3 percent (from 1,115 to 654), and motor vehicle theft fell 14.0 percent.
Shoplifting is the one property category that moved against the trend, rising 15.8 percent from 2,181 offenses in 2021 to 2,525 in 2025. It now accounts for 33.5 percent of all larceny-theft in the county, up from 23.6 percent in 2021. A countywide headline of “property crime is down” is accurate on its own terms, silent on the violent-crime trend, and wrong for retail operators specifically.
| Year | Property | Burglary | Commercial burglary | Vehicle theft | Shoplifting | Violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 12,161 | 1,731 | 1,115 | 1,204 | 2,181 | 1,758 |
| 2022 | 11,124 | 1,619 | 1,010 | 1,306 | 2,055 | 1,645 |
| 2023 | 11,071 | 1,455 | 882 | 1,252 | 2,524 | 2,411 |
| 2024 | 11,216 | 1,385 | 807 | 1,370 | 2,977 | 2,481 |
| 2025 | 9,745 | 1,163 | 654 | 1,036 | 2,525 | 2,427 |
| Change | −19.9% | −32.8% | −41.3% | −14.0% | +15.8% | +38.1% |
The population base also fell slightly over this period, from an estimated 839,956 in 2021 to 830,851 in 2025, so the property-crime decline is not simply a function of a growing denominator.
Vehicles Are the Target in 3,330 Ventura County Offenses
Vehicles were the target in 3,330 Ventura County offenses in 2025. That is 1,036 completed motor vehicle thefts plus 2,294 larcenies that targeted a vehicle without taking it — 1,687 thefts from a vehicle and 607 thefts of vehicle parts or accessories. Vehicle-related larceny alone is 30.4 percent of all larceny in the county.
These are counted under separate offense headings and are added here only because they describe the same target. They are not combined anywhere in the source data, and the 3,330 total is this page’s arithmetic, stated so it can be checked. Ventura County’s dispersed geography — 18 reporting agencies across a county roughly 1,850 square miles, with no single dominant city — is relevant to anyone weighing parking lot coverage or vehicle patrol across multiple sites.
Nearly Two-Thirds of Ventura County Burglaries Involve Forcible Entry
Nearly two-thirds of Ventura County burglaries involve forcible entry. Of the 1,163 burglaries reported across the county in 2025, 727 were recorded as forcible entry and 436 as unlawful entry without force. The two categories sum exactly to the burglary total, so every reported burglary falls into one or the other.
The 37.5 percent that entered without force matters as much as the majority that did. CA DOJ records this as a binary classification and does not describe how any individual entry occurred, so this page does not characterize those 436 cases further. What the category does establish is that well over a third of Ventura County burglaries did not require defeating any physical barrier — which is why closing-time verification is a standard duty on a Guardian National Security post order, alongside the core guard services a site contracts.
Shoplifting and Other Larceny Dominate Ventura County Theft
Shoplifting and an unclassified “all other” category dominate Ventura County larceny. Of 7,546 larceny-theft offenses in 2025, shoplifting accounted for 2,525 and the all-other category for a further 1,837. The nine published subcategories sum exactly to the larceny total, with no residual left unaccounted for.
| Subcategory | Offenses | Share of larceny |
|---|---|---|
| Shoplifting | 2,525 | 33.5% |
| All other larceny | 1,837 | 24.3% |
| Theft from a motor vehicle | 1,687 | 22.4% |
| Motor vehicle parts and accessories | 607 | 8.0% |
| Theft from a building | 437 | 5.8% |
| Bicycles | 350 | 4.6% |
| Pocket-picking | 63 | 0.8% |
| Purse-snatching | 34 | 0.5% |
| Coin-operated machines | 6 | 0.1% |
| Total larceny-theft | 7,546 | 100% |
“All other larceny” is CA DOJ’s residual bucket for larceny that does not fit the eight named categories, and the agency does not break it down further, so this page does not speculate about its contents. The three named categories that a security program can actually influence — shoplifting, theft from vehicles, and vehicle parts — together account for 4,819 offenses, or 63.9 percent of all Ventura County larceny.
Oxnard Reports the Most Property Crime, Simi Valley the Highest Commercial Burglary Share Among the Largest Cities
Oxnard reports the most property crime of any Ventura County jurisdiction, and Simi Valley carries the highest commercial burglary share among the county’s largest cities. Oxnard recorded 3,215 property offenses in 2025, followed by the city of Ventura at 1,947 and Thousand Oaks at 1,218 — together the three largest cities account for 65.5 percent of countywide property crime.
Composition varies more than volume. Simi Valley’s burglaries were 62.1 percent commercial and the city of Ventura’s ran close behind at 61.3 percent, both above the 56.2 percent countywide figure. Oxnard, the county’s largest jurisdiction by volume, posted the lowest commercial share of the five at 51.4 percent — meaning Oxnard’s burglary mix skews more residential than the county overall.
| City | Property offenses | Burglary | Commercial burglary | Commercial share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oxnard | 3,215 | 327 | 168 | 51.4% |
| Ventura | 1,947 | 230 | 141 | 61.3% |
| Thousand Oaks | 1,218 | 130 | 78 | 60.0% |
| Simi Valley | 960 | 177 | 110 | 62.1% |
| Camarillo | 769 | 67 | 39 | 58.2% |
These are the five largest jurisdictions by property-crime volume, not a ranking of danger — a larger city reports more of everything. Four of the five still show burglary running commercial-majority; only Oxnard sits below the countywide 56.2 percent figure, and even Oxnard remains close to an even split.
The Sheriff’s Department Runs a More Residential Burglary Profile Than the County Overall
Three Ventura County law enforcement agencies reported an all-commercial burglary profile in 2025: California State University Channel Islands police, whose single burglary was non-residential; the Union Pacific Railroad’s Ventura jurisdiction, with 5; and Ventura Community College police, with 4. All three patrol jurisdictions that contain little or no housing, which is why their numbers land at 100 percent commercial rather than reflecting anything unusual about enforcement.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department runs the opposite pattern. It reported 101 burglaries across its unincorporated and contract-city jurisdictions in 2025, and only 43 of them — 42.6 percent — were commercial, below the 56.2 percent countywide figure. Sheriff-served areas skew more residential than the county’s incorporated cities, which is the likely reason for the gap; this page does not claim to know the cause with certainty.
| Agency | Commercial burglary | Total burglary | Commercial share |
|---|---|---|---|
| California State University, Channel Islands | 1 | 1 | 100% |
| Union Pacific Railroad – Ventura | 5 | 5 | 100% |
| Ventura Community College | 4 | 4 | 100% |
These are counts of reported offenses, not rates, and the three agencies above report far fewer total burglaries than any city police department in the county. They are included because the 100 percent figure is real, not because the volume is meaningful on its own.
What the Ventura County Crime Statistics Mean for Property Owners
Three findings in these Ventura County crime statistics change how a commercial site should be covered. First, the majority of burglary is still commercial even though the share runs below the state average, the same below-average pattern documented east of Los Angeles. Second, commercial burglary with a known time skews heavily to night, while residential splits almost evenly. Third, the county’s above-average clearance rate is a fact about what happens after a crime, not a substitute for prevention.
That third point is easy to misread. A 16.8 percent burglary clearance rate is genuinely better than California’s 10.2 percent, but it still means five out of six burglaries close without an arrest. Deterrence and detection at the point of entry remain the only controls a property owner actually governs, which is the argument for on-site presence at retail centers, construction sites and apartment and gated communities during the hours the data says entry occurs.
Guardian National Security covers Ventura County and publishes rates openly: unarmed guards $25–40 per hour, armed guards $35–65 per hour, mobile patrol $45–70 per hour, with a price-match guarantee on any comparable licensed quote.
Methodology and Source Notes
The Ventura County crime statistics on this page come from the California Department of Justice Crimes and Clearances (including Arson), 1985–2025 file, published July 2026 through OpenJustice. Figures were produced by isolating the 2025 Ventura County entries in that file, then adding the relevant totals together across all 18 reporting agencies.
These are UCR summary counts, not NIBRS incident records. California agencies report monthly offense totals under the FBI’s summary Uniform Crime Reporting definitions. That is a different measure from the incident-level NIBRS data some cities publish, and the two must never be added together or compared directly — which is why the figures here cannot be set against our Los Angeles property crime statistics, which are built from LAPD NIBRS records.
Every figure was derived twice, by different routes. Each headline number was computed from the annual file and then recomputed by summing the monthly rows for 2025 in the separate by-month file. All eighteen tested figures matched exactly. Internal subtotals also reconcile: residential plus non-residential burglary equals total burglary, the nine larceny subcategories sum to larceny-theft, forcible plus unlawful entry equals total burglary, and burglary plus vehicle theft plus larceny equals total property crime.
Raw file: Crimes and Clearances 1985–2025 (CSV). Definitions and reporting rules: CA DOJ context document. Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 county population estimates, using the Census Bureau’s 2025 population estimate for the county.
Limits of this data. These are offenses reported to police; unreported crime is not counted. “Ventura County” here means every agency reporting to CA DOJ with a county of Ventura, which includes the California Highway Patrol, three park and recreation district agencies, university police departments and a railroad police jurisdiction alongside city police and the sheriff’s department. Clearance rates are not published split by residential and non-residential, so no commercial clearance rate is claimed.
Ventura County Crime Statistics: Frequently Asked Questions
How much crime is there in Ventura County?
Law enforcement agencies in Ventura County reported 9,745 property offenses and 2,427 violent offenses in 2025. Against a population of 830,851, that is a property crime rate of 1,172.9 per 100,000 residents. The figures come from the California Department of Justice.
Property crime breaks into 7,546 larcenies, 1,163 burglaries and 1,036 motor vehicle thefts. All 18 reporting agencies in the county are included, from city police and the sheriff’s department to park and recreation districts, university and railroad police jurisdictions. These are offenses reported to police under FBI summary reporting definitions, so unreported crime is not counted anywhere in the totals.
Are businesses or homes burglarized more often in Ventura County?
Businesses are burglarized somewhat more often than homes in Ventura County, based on the California Department of Justice’s 2025 data. Of 1,163 burglaries reported across the county that year, 654 were non-residential and 509 were residential — a 56.2 to 43.8 split in favor of commercial targets.
That share runs below the statewide figure: California as a whole reported a higher commercial share in 2025, at 62.2 percent of 109,596 burglaries. Simi Valley and the city of Ventura posted the highest commercial shares among the county’s largest cities, at 62.1 percent and 61.3 percent, while Oxnard — the county’s largest jurisdiction by volume — ran more residential, at 51.4 percent commercial.
What time of day do commercial burglaries happen in Ventura County?
Ventura County commercial burglaries skew heavily to night among cases where a time was recorded. Agencies logged 381 non-residential burglaries as night and 267 as day in 2025, so 58.8 percent of the 648 with a recorded time occurred at night.
A further 6 commercial burglaries, or 0.9 percent of the total, carry no recorded time, so the night share describes recorded cases only. Residential burglary splits almost evenly by comparison, with 261 daytime cases against 248 night ones and zero unrecorded. Businesses are entered mostly after dark and homes on a near-even split, which is the practical argument for overnight rather than daytime-only commercial coverage.
How many Ventura County crimes lead to an arrest?
Ventura County clears crime well above the California average, according to the California Department of Justice. Agencies in the county cleared 195 of 1,163 burglaries in 2025, a clearance rate of 16.8 percent, compared with 10.2 percent statewide — meaning roughly one in six Ventura County burglaries closes with an arrest.
Motor vehicle theft cleared at 14.3 percent against California’s 6.6 percent, larceny at 20.2 percent against 12.6 percent, and overall property clearance at 19.2 percent against 11.2 percent statewide. Violent crime cleared at 57.5 percent of 2,427 offenses, also above California’s 45.9 percent. The dataset does not split clearances into residential and non-residential, so no commercial clearance rate is published.
Is crime rising or falling in Ventura County?
Ventura County property crime is falling overall while violent crime is rising sharply. Total property offenses dropped 19.9 percent between 2021 and 2025, from 12,161 to 9,745, while burglary fell 32.8 percent and commercial burglary specifically fell 41.3 percent over the same five years.
Violent crime moved the opposite way, rising 38.1 percent from 1,758 offenses in 2021 to 2,427 in 2025. Shoplifting also rose, up 15.8 percent and now 33.5 percent of all larceny-theft, up from 23.6 percent in 2021. A countywide summary of falling crime is accurate for property offenses in aggregate and misleading for violent crime and for retail operators specifically.
Which Ventura County city has the highest commercial burglary share?
Simi Valley had the highest commercial burglary share among Ventura County’s largest cities in 2025, at 62.1 percent, with the city of Ventura close behind at 61.3 percent. Oxnard recorded the most property crime overall, 3,215 offenses, but the lowest commercial share of the five largest cities at 51.4 percent.
Thousand Oaks posted 60.0 percent commercial and Camarillo 58.2 percent — every one of the five largest cities still showed burglary running at or near a commercial majority. These figures rank reporting volume and composition, not danger; a larger city reports more of everything, and this page does not rank cities by risk.
Where do these Ventura County crime statistics come from?
These Ventura County crime statistics are drawn from the California Department of Justice Crimes and Clearances file covering 1985 through 2025, published through OpenJustice in July 2026. Population denominators come from the U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 county population estimates.
Every headline figure was derived twice, once from the annual file and once by summing the monthly rows for 2025 in the separate by-month file. All eighteen tested figures matched exactly. These are UCR summary counts and are not comparable with, and must never be added to, NIBRS incident data published by individual cities.
