Crime By Community: The FBI Releases Annual Statistics

Here's a breakdown of the most populated parts of the state, and the "violent crime" data compiled by the agency.
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation last week released its annual list of violent crimes in communities around the country, including offense and arrest data, which was reported to them by participating law enforcement agencies.

The publication, called “Crime in the United States,” breaks down individual offenses, such as forcible rape, murder, aggravated assault, robberies, larceny, and theft, by community, for the entire 2012 calendar year.

According to the FBI’s roundup, a total of 18,290 city, county, state, university, college, and federal agencies participated in the UCR program last year. Based on that information, officials were able to determine that, on a national level, violent crime increased for the first time in six years by an estimated 0.7 percent.

While the FBI doesn’t interpret the stats and merely puts the information out to the public, for Boston specifically, there was a slight increase in overall reported violent crimes, as categorized by the FBI, rising from 5,252 reports to 5,266 reports. Murder and non-negligent manslaughter dropped by six reports in the city when compared to statistics from 2011, as did reports of forcible rape, which dropped from 271 incidents to 249.

As for robberies, Boston saw six additional reports added to the annual tally when compared to the 1,904 robberies recorded for 2011. Aggravated assaults were also up, rising from 3,014 reported incidents in 2011, to more than 3,050 last year.

Below is a list of the top 25 most populated communities in Massachusetts and a snapshot of the crime statistics compiled by FBI officials, based on information submitted to the agency from those participating in the Uniform Crime Reporting program. A complete list of data of all the Massachusetts cities and towns cited in the annual report can be found here, on the FBI’s website.

Massachusetts City/TownPopulationViolent crimeMurderForcible rapeRobberyAggravated assaultProperty crimeBurglaryLarcenyAuto theftArson ^
Boston630,6485,266572491,9103,05018,3493,32513,4001,624
Worcester183,2471,7588334191,2986,4322,0403,9274656
Springfield154,5181,60611395421,0147,0242,3173,94776068
Lowell108,5395850371743743,1258491,98129527
Cambridge106,9814311201352753,0915022,4821078
New Bedford96,0311,0302542727023,1809291,95030129
Brockton95,1561,0886482258093,0718152,04621033
Quincy93,736401031842861,55449594311613
Lynn91,8467542481705342,5896981,6142778
Fall River89,7539542522626382,7067741,65927327
Newton86,71076051754894185693162
Lawrence77,6617852252235351,965536743686
Somerville77,200269023821641,7243481,2481283
Framingham *69,60515407211261,2382548841001
Haverhill61,897418212523521,4393939201268
Waltham61,72514601224110849191610481
Malden60,605280119751851,2032817941287
Brookline59,65882043147803148637180
Taunton56,43826801862188851380437342
Chicopee55,825258027721591,6796349251207
Weymouth54,5971880942137805210551449
Revere52,926269112721841,2452308441712
Peabody52,11312101112981,102155893543
Methuen48,05178011463870142658701
Barnstable45,570283122292311,2693788474410

^ The FBI does not publish arson data unless it receives data from either the agency or the state for all 12 months of the calendar year.
* Because of changes in the state/local agency’s reporting practices, figures are not comparable to previous years’ data.

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