Crime rates for New Bedford, MA

About New Bedford crime rates

The crime rate in New Bedford is considerably higher than the national average across all communities in America from the largest to the smallest, although at 47 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 New Bedford is 1 in 21. Based on FBI crime data, New Bedford is not one of the safest communities in America. Relative to Massachusetts, New Bedford has a crime rate that is higher than 97% of the state's cities and towns of all sizes.In fact, after researching dangerous places to live, NeighborhoodScout found New Bedford to be one of the top 100 most dangerous cities in the U.S.A.

Importantly, when you compare New Bedford to other communities of similar population, then New Bedford crime rate (violent and property crimes combined) is quite a bit higher than average. Regardless of how New Bedford 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 New Bedford 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 New Bedford.

For New Bedford, we found that the violent crime rate is one of the highest in the nation, across communities of all sizes (both large and small). Violent offenses tracked included forcible rape, murder and non-negligent manslaughter, armed robbery, and aggravated assault, including assault with a deadly weapon. According to NeighborhoodScout's analysis of FBI reported crime data, your chance of becoming a victim of one of these crimes in New Bedford is one in 87.

NeighborhoodScout's analysis also reveals that New Bedford's rate for property crime is 35 per one thousand population. This makes New Bedford 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 New Bedford is one in 29.

Importantly, we found that New Bedford has one of the highest rates of motor vehicle theft in the nation according to our analysis of FBI crime data. This is compared to communities of all sizes, from the smallest to the largest. In fact, your chance of getting your car stolen if you live in New Bedford is one in 278.