Great Dunmow is about as safe as the rest of Uttlesford, which makes it average for a district with a fairly low crime level to begin with. Its crime rate is almost identical to the district's. Unemployment is low. Overcrowding is rare. The numbers describe an ordinary market town that gets the ordinary amount of trouble for one.
Essex Police data puts Great Dunmow's crime rate at about 61 per 1,000 people for the year from June 2025 to May 2026, from 830 recorded crimes. Over twelve months, a small total in a town this size could be skewed by a few busy weekends, and here it hasn't been.
The rate across the whole of Uttlesford for the same year is about 62 per 1,000. The town is level with the district. Moving from a nearby village to Great Dunmow does not mean moving somewhere rougher, just somewhere with more people in it.
Great Dunmow is fairly dense for a market town, at about 3,730 people per square kilometre across its neighbourhoods. Unemployment is about 2% and about 2% of households are overcrowded. Those figures describe the kind of place it is, and how much crime it gets does not follow from them.
The breakdown by type looks a little worse than it is. Violence and sexual offences make up about 42% of recorded crime here, against about 35% nationally. That category is the largest almost everywhere and covers everything up to common assault without injury. Criminal damage and arson make up about 11% against 7% nationally, while anti-social behaviour is lower, at about 10% against 16%. Other theft, public order offences and vehicle crime each sit within a point or two of the national share, at about 7%, 7% and 6%. Great Dunmow reports less nuisance than the national average and more broken property. In a town where most people own their home, damage tends to get reported, while noise next door tends to get complained about over the fence instead.
After a crime is reported, Essex Police charges a suspect in about 11% of cases, against about 12% nationally, which puts it 28th of 42 forces. In about 37% of its cases, nobody is identified at all. Those are figures for the whole force, from Harlow to the coast, and they measure what happens after a crime, not how likely one is. The police's own crime map shows the same year street by street, and for a specific road it is a better guide than any town-wide average.
Great Dunmow is a middling place for safety: it matches its district, has the same mix of trouble as most towns, and offers nothing that should worry a buyer or reassure them more than that.