Dallas, TX · 2022 to 2025

In Dallas, Black women's reported assault rate is about twice Hispanic women's and close to 4 times White women's

The gap is widest for aggravated assault and holds at the same age mix. Comparing women in similar neighborhoods narrows it but does not close it.

From 2022 through 2025, the Dallas Police Department reported 83,911 victims of aggravated and simple assault to the FBI. Counted against the people who live in the city, Black women's reported assault rate was 3,798 per 100,000 a year. That is 2.3 times the rate for Hispanic women (1,679) and 3.9 times the rate for White women (972). It is also higher than the rate for men in any group, including Black men (2,506).

The comparison holds under cautious assumptions. Victim race is recorded by officers; the Census counts residents by their own answers. If every multiracial victim were recorded as Black, the ratios would be 2.1 times Hispanic women's and 3.6 times White women's. Ethnicity is missing for only 1% of women victims in Dallas, so the Hispanic comparison is firmer here than in most cities.

Age doesn't explain it, and it is widest for aggravated assault

Compared at the same age mix, Black women's rate is 3,966 per 100,000, against 1,664 for Hispanic women and 987 for White women. The gap is larger for aggravated assault, which covers attacks with weapons or serious injuries, than for simple assault.

Black women's rate fell each year, from 4,375 per 100,000 in 2022 to 3,492 in 2025. The gap with White women held at 3.9 times in both halves of the period; the gap with Hispanic women narrowed from 2.4 to 2.1 times.

Where women live explains part of it

The FBI's files carry no location, so the neighborhood test runs on the city's own public incident file. That file leaves out family violence and any case involving someone under 17, so it holds only a sixth to a fifth of the assaults, mostly by strangers and acquaintances. Within that subset, Black women's rate is higher than other women's in every police division, by 2.0 to 4.8 times. Comparing women in census tracts with similar poverty, income, unemployment and housing narrows the gap from 2.7 to 2.2 times.

Those neighborhood conditions are themselves shaped by segregation and disinvestment. In Dallas, 32.7% of Black women live in census tracts where a quarter or more of residents are poor, against 5.4% of White women. A gap that narrows when neighborhoods are compared has been located, not explained away.

Partner assault

Intimate partner assault is a smaller share of assaults on Black women (37.5%) than on Hispanic women (43.7%) or White women (41.5%). Outside partner assault the gap is larger: 4.2 times White women's rate, against 3.5 times within it.

What this does not show

• Why. The data shows a difference in reported rates. It does not measure causes, offenders or circumstances.
• Every assault. Only assaults that reached the police are counted. The national victimization survey, where women describe their own assaults, finds a much smaller gap; hospital emergency departments find one closer to the police figure. What the assault-victim gap measures looks at why. Police data also reflects where officers patrol and who calls them, so it can't separate more policing or more reporting from more assaults.
• Every agency. Only the Dallas Police Department is counted. Transit, school, hospital, campus and county police in Dallas recorded another 4,244 assault victims in these years.
• People. Rates count reports, not people: someone assaulted twice counts twice. Rates divide by residents, not by the commuters and visitors who spend time in Dallas.

Part of the series Assault victims by race and sex, 6 reports.