High Barnet is a fairly safe part of outer London, with crime running a little below the rest of its own borough. Violence makes up a smaller share of crime here than it does nationally. Anti-social behaviour, petty theft and vehicle crime make up more of it. Nothing here would explain the town's reputation for being dangerous, because it doesn't have one. The worst that usually happens is someone's car gets broken into.
The Metropolitan Police recorded 4,307 crimes in the area in the year to May 2026, a published rate of about 91 per 1,000 residents. That's about 6% below the average for the London Borough of Barnet over the same twelve months. A gap that size could close if a couple of busy months went the other way, so High Barnet is better described as slightly below the borough than comfortably safer than it.
Across the borough as a whole, the published rate for the same year was about 97 crimes per 1,000 residents, against about 91 in High Barnet. Those two numbers are the comparison buyers should look at, and the gap between them is real but small.
The area has about 6,390 people per square kilometre on average, which makes it a built-up suburb. At the 2021 census about 3% of residents were unemployed and about 6% of households were overcrowded. These figures describe what kind of neighbourhood High Barnet is. They don't explain the crime rate. With that many people living close together, the crime rate was always going to be a London suburb's, and it was never going to look like a village's.
Violence and sexual offences account for about 24% of crime here, against about 35% across England and Wales. That category covers everything from serious assault to common assault without injury. Anti-social behaviour makes up about 22%, against 16% nationally. Other theft is about 12% against 7%, and shoplifting about 10% against 8%. Vehicle crime is about 9% against 5%, and public order offences about 6%, close to the national 7%. Almost every category where High Barnet runs above the national share is a crime against property, not against people. The most famous violence in Barnet's history is still the Battle of Barnet in 1471, fought up the road at Monken Hadley, and it involved a king.
Once a crime is reported, the Metropolitan Police charges a suspect in about 10% of cases across London, against about 12% nationally, which puts it 33rd of 42 forces in England and Wales. About 53% of the force's cases are closed without a suspect being identified. Those are figures for the whole of London. They describe what happens after a crime is reported, and they say nothing about how safe High Barnet's streets are. For a picture of one road, the street-level map on police.uk is worth checking. The figures above cover the whole area.
High Barnet is safer than average for its borough. The crime that does happen is mostly against property and nuisance, so it's a suburb where buyers check the car more often than their own safety.