Crime rates for Cambridge, MA

The crime rate in Cambridge is considerably higher than the national average across all communities in America from the largest to the smallest, although at 48 crimes per one thousand residents, it is not among the communities with the very highest crime rate. The chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime in Cambridge is 1 in 21. Based on FBI crime data, Cambridge is not one of the safest communities in America. Relative to Massachusetts, Cambridge has a crime rate that is higher than 90% of the state's cities and towns of all sizes.

Importantly, when you compare Cambridge to other cities of similar population, the Cambridge crime rate (violent and property crimes combined) is quite a bit higher than average. Regardless of how Cambridge does relative to all communities in America of all sizes, when NeighborhoodScout compared it to communities of similar population size, its crime rate per thousand residents stands out as higher than most.

The crime data that NeighborhoodScout used for this analysis are the seven offenses from the uniform crime reports, collected by the FBI from 17,000 local law enforcement agencies, and include both violent and property crimes, combined.

Now let us turn to take a look at how Cambridge does for violent crimes specifically, and then how it does for property crimes. This is important because the overall crime rate can be further illuminated by understanding if violent crime or property crimes (or both) are the major contributors to the general rate of crime in Cambridge.

From our analysis, we discovered that violent crime in Cambridge occurs at a rate higher than in most communities of all population sizes in America. The chance that a person will become a victim of a violent crime in Cambridge – such as armed robbery, aggravated assault, rape or murder – is 1 in 199. This equates to a rate of 5 per one thousand inhabitants.

NeighborhoodScout's analysis also reveals that Cambridge's rate for property crime is 43 per one thousand population. This makes Cambridge a place where there is an above average chance of becoming a victim of a property crime, when compared to all other communities in America of all population sizes. Property crimes are motor vehicle theft, arson, larceny, and burglary. Your chance of becoming a victim of any of these crimes in Cambridge is one in 23.