How has crime changed in Massachusetts since 1985?

Police in Massachusetts reported about 301 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 2025 (U.S.: 329), down from a high of 844 in 1992, and 1,036 property crimes in 2025 (U.S.: 1,552), down from a high of 4,650 in 1989. There's no figure for 1990–1991, when police departments covering fewer than 3 in 4 of its people reported a full year. Rates count only the agencies that reported. Choose another state to compare.

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Source
FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program
License
Public domain (U.S. government work); source FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program
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Chartly. “How has crime changed in your state since 1985?” Chart. Data: FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend (data as of December 31, 2025). https://chart.ly/charts/crime-rates-by-state-since-1985 (accessed October 10, 2026).

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This table shows Massachusetts's rates and the U.S. rates each year; the download has the state the chart opens with.

Crimes per 100,000 people in Massachusetts and the U.S., each year
Year Violent, Massachusetts Violent, U.S. Property, Massachusetts Property, U.S.
1985 574.8 570.3 4,371.4 4,780.0
1986 598.2 633.6 4,372.0 5,015.3
1987 618.1 624.9 4,413.7 5,090.1
1988 675.2 630.2 4,575.8 5,045.9
1989 727.2 680.5 4,650.0 5,211.5
1990 – 749.8 – 5,227.0
1991 – 798.1 – 5,388.4
1992 844.0 785.4 4,362.7 5,089.3
1993 818.6 764.1 4,138.4 4,814.1
1994 633.1 740.4 3,362.0 4,752.4
1995 632.2 720.6 3,348.4 4,796.6
1996 632.1 658.8 3,126.7 4,553.0
1997 635.3 644.9 2,995.4 4,494.7
1998 623.7 603.8 2,830.9 4,212.6
1999 558.4 545.8 2,738.5 3,872.6
2000 538.8 534.4 2,579.9 3,751.7
2001 519.0 529.5 2,676.1 3,801.5
2002 515.9 512.9 2,684.1 3,737.7
2003 498.6 493.7 2,588.8 3,704.0
2004 487.1 478.6 2,486.1 3,599.4
2005 507.2 483.0 2,372.1 3,518.3
2006 505.5 486.9 2,419.1 3,397.1
2007 466.3 477.9 2,422.6 3,316.1
2008 465.0 463.7 2,410.3 3,252.3
2009 464.0 436.8 2,334.9 3,076.7
2010 472.2 408.1 2,362.5 2,963.4
2011 431.4 390.1 2,274.0 2,925.7
2012 409.7 390.7 2,168.7 2,881.3
2013 406.6 378.2 2,061.8 2,759.3
2014 395.1 373.7 1,871.6 2,591.8
2015 389.2 384.6 1,686.3 2,495.2
2016 379.8 399.5 1,558.6 2,469.1
2017 358.2 397.5 1,440.7 2,372.4
2018 341.5 384.8 1,277.3 2,206.8
2019 330.0 381.0 1,184.9 2,109.0
2020 311.8 399.3 1,069.5 1,955.3
2021 302.4 360.9 1,009.7 1,762.2
2022 325.7 398.2 1,086.4 1,998.5
2023 327.3 385.6 1,149.6 1,950.5
2024 317.8 363.4 1,126.9 1,766.8
2025 301.0 329.3 1,036.2 1,552.1

Crimes per 100,000 people, as police reported them to the FBI.

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