CrimeMetric

Crime in Brookline, Massachusetts

Major crime in Brookline is 51% below the U.S. rate per resident: 65% lower for persons crimes and 48% lower for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 2.9% from a year earlier.

Modeled estimates per resident, not counts of incidents. How we calculated this

Major crime
49
51% below the U.S. rate
33% below the Massachusetts rate
down 2.9% in a year
Persons crimes
35
65% below the U.S. rate
64% below the Massachusetts rate
down 8.1% in a year
Property crimes
52
48% below the U.S. rate
24% below the Massachusetts rate
down 2.1% in a year
Social disorder
18
82% below the U.S. rate
73% below the Massachusetts rate
down 5.9% in a year

Index: crimes per resident compared with the U.S., where 100 is the U.S. rate and 200 is twice it.

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Crime by type

Every crime type in Brookline is near or below the U.S. rate

Expected crimes per year in Brookline for each type, and the index against the U.S. rate per resident.

Citywide indexWhere the middle half of residents live

IndexPer year

How crime varies across Brookline

The middle half of Brookline residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 31 and 59; the typical (median) resident's is 41. The citywide figure (49) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.

Map of Brookline, with its census block groups shaded by major-crime index band
Block groups shaded by major-crime index, in the bar's bands below; pale gray where fewer than 100 people live. Tap one to compare it. Highways and boundaries: U.S. Census Bureau.
  • 0–5068.2%
  • 50–10022.2%
  • 100–2009.6%
  • 200–4000.0%
  • 400+0.0%

Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.

When it happens

Highest on weekday daytimes

Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.

Monday to Friday, 6am to 6pm60
Sunday to Thursday nights, 6pm to 6am40
Saturday and Sunday, 6am to 6pm53
Friday and Saturday nights, 6pm to 6am35
Trend and outlook

Major crime fell 2.9% in a year; across Massachusetts it fell 5.7%

Past yearBy 2031
Major crime-2.9%MA -5.7%-14.6%MA -11.5%
Persons crimes-8.1%MA +0.2%-2.4%MA -0.8%
Property crimes-2.1%MA -7.4%-16.3%MA -14.9%
Social disorder-5.9%MA -1.6%-5.4%MA -4.6%

Change in expected crimes, with Massachusetts as a whole in gray. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.

Similar-size places

Brookline against U.S. places with 50,000 to 100,000 residents

472 of the 540 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Brookline; the middle of the group is 92. The 9 nearest in population:

Vineland, NJ63,519173
Owensboro, KY63,834154
Corvallis, OR63,615118
Moore, OK63,92397
Taunton, MA63,58375
Brookline, MA63,73349

Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.

Nearby places

Brookline has a higher major-crime index than 3 of its 8 nearest neighbors

The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, Boston (2 mi), is 3.0 times Brookline's rate.

Cambridge3 mi185
Boston2 mi146
Somerville4 mi109
Medford6 mi65
Brookline49
Belmont4 mi44
Newton4 mi33
Arlington6 mi27

Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.

Questions about crime in Brookline

What are the most common crimes in Brookline?

By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are other larceny (about 212 a year), shoplifting (about 150 a year) and aggravated assault (about 56 a year). Compared with the U.S., shoplifting stands out most: 26% below the U.S. rate per resident.

How we calculated this

Each police agency's crimes, as reported to the FBI, are spread across the census block groups it serves using population, jobs, points of interest and, where available, local incident records. Brookline's figures add up its 44 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.

  • Brookline has no published incident records in our data, so its estimate relies on agency totals and neighborhood characteristics.
  • 2.8% of residents live in block groups whose estimate has high confidence (80% interval within about 5x).
  • Rates are per resident, so places where many people work or visit but few live, such as downtowns, airports and stadiums, can read high.
  • Disorderly conduct and trespassing are modeled, because the FBI records them only through arrests.
  • Residents: 63,733. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2

Full method and validation·Data sources

Cite this page

CrimeMetric. "Crime in Brookline, Massachusetts." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/ma/brookline

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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100