While Boston’s long-term crime rates are down overall, consistent with trends in other major cities, violent crime is increasing.  Homicides in Boston increased 23% between 2004 and 2006, with 61 homicides in 2004, 73 in 2005 and 75 in 2006. While the murder rate hit an 11 year high in Boston in 2006, it was considerably lower than the high of 152 homicides in 1990.  However, between 2004 and 2006:

• Non-fatal shootings increased 48% in Boston;
• Reports of rape and attempted rape rose 10%;
• Violent crime in Boston’s housing developments increased by 21%;
• Property crime dropped 7% in Boston overall and slightly in Boston’s housing developments.
• Vehicle theft and attempted theft declined 26%.;
• Reported incidents of domestic violence increased 11% but were below the 10-year high.

Gang activity in Boston is increasing and is a growing concern across the region.  In response, law enforcement officials in Boston have created Anti-Gang Task Forces with neighboring police departments to pool intelligence and conduct joint patrols.

• In 2005, the Boston Police Department identified about 100 gangs, and Boston received $3 million in state funding for anti-gang efforts.
• In 2006 more than half of Boston’s gun homicides involved gang-related motives.
• Boston returned to Operation Ceasefire, a program that was successful in the 1990s in neighborhoods suffering from gang conflicts. This violence prevention initiative is a collective effort involving the Boston Police Department and other criminal justice agencies, social service providers, and community based partners. Through Operation Ceasefire, some gangs have been offered the opportunity to negotiate truces with rival gangs. The 2006 truce between the Heath Street and H-Block gangs was one outcome of this process.
• The Suffolk County District Attorney's Anti-Gang Violence Coalitionwas formed to help member organizations coordinate their efforts, share information, and help each other create new ways to solve the difficult problems associated with gang violence. Monthly meetings have yielded collaborative efforts on summer youth programs, cooperation on major crime prevention initiatives, such as the annual National Night Out Program, and plans for a series of year-round youth activities.

A demographic bulge in teenagers—an age cohort more likely than others to be engage in risky behaviors—coincides with a loss in federal funds for community policing, a constrained public budget for youth activities, fewer entry-level jobs for young people and school drop outs, and an increase in the availability of guns.  Police and community workers have observed that juveniles are more frequently engaging in deadly violence for apparently trivial reasons.

• The number of teenagers living in Boston increased dramatically to about 26,000, the city’s highest teen population in a decade Report of the Special Committee on Youth Violent Crime Prevention, Boston City Council, June 2006.
• The percentage of teenage victims of gun violence has risen in recent years.  Citing figures from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the Boston Globe reported that the number of nonfatal gunshot wound victims under the age of 20 has been rising. In 2003, 20% of the victims were under the age of 20. This figure rose to 34% in 2004 and to 35% in 2005. In the first four months of 2006, 45% of nonfatal gunshot wound victims were under the age of 20.

• Between 2004 and 2006, the number of youths aged 16 and under arrested for violent crimes in Boston increased 9% and the number of youth arrests for “quality of life” crimes such as assaults, vandalism and other lesser offenses climbed 30%, from 838 to 1,087 —the highest since 1997 when there were 1,247 such arrests.

• There are indications that school violence is rising. According to the Boston Globe, the number of weapons confiscated in and around Boston’s Public Schools rose 42% in the last five years.Violence among girls in increasing. A rise in violent crimes committed by teenage girls prompted an increase in female police officers in the Youth Violence Strike Force.

Rising rates of youth violence have reinvigorated partnerships for violence reduction and youth development among government, criminal justice groups, community-based groups, faith-based organizations, social service agencies, and businesses.  Boston was a model for strong community-police partnerships to effectively fight crime and violence in the 1990s, and with escalating rates of violence, in 2006 Mayor Thomas M. Menino asked the Boston TenPoint Coalition and other members of the faith-based community to expand outreach activities in “hotspots” such as Franklin Hill, Grove Hall, Mattapan and Mission Hill. The TenPoint Coalition announced an initiative to enlist 1,000 volunteers to revive community-police partnerships. And of a $700,000 state grant to community groups to fund programs to fight youth violence in Boston, half was set aside for the Black Ministerial Alliance, and Boston foundations pooled their resources to create the Summer Safety Funding Collaborative to extend the hours of operation of summer programs and enhance their quality.

Although it is frequently unreported and difficult to document, there is evidence that teenage prostitution is worsening.  Cases involving the abuse of teenage prostitutes in Suffolk County rose from 7 between 2001 and 2003 to more than 100 between 2004 and 2006, but because these cases are underreported, the problem is likely even worse.  An interagency agreement signed by more than 30 social service and law enforcement agencies in 2006 requires that all cases involving prostituted children be referred immediately to the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.  The agreement also states that the children should be treated as victims rather than perpetrators of crime and given appropriate mental and physical treatment.

Federal funding for the Boston Police Department (BPD) has declined since 2001, with the number of Boston Police officers also declining.  The City of Boston received $32.1 million in federal community policing grants in the three fiscal years prior to Sept. 11, 2001, compared with $12.6 million in the three years following. TheDepartment received just $2 million in federal funding in 2006— approximately 33% less than in 2005.  Law enforcement officials across the nation have observed that the federal government’s focus on homeland security neglects “hometown security.”  According to former Acting Boston Police Commissioner Al Goslin, there is a direct correlation between the lack of federal funding and the recent increase in crime. According to the FBI, the BPD lost 3% of its force, or 68 officers, from 2002 to 2005 while the number of law enforcement officers nationwide rose 1% during that time.In the 1990s there were about 2,300 Boston police officers. By the end of 2006, sworn police force numbered about 2,070, while the patrol force dipped to about 1,300 from about 1,500 five years before.  The Department recently announced that it had initiated a recruiting campaign for new officers to meet a goal of 2300 in 2007.

According to biennial Boston Police Department (BPD) survey data, residents in 2006 were more likely to consider Boston Police officers to be fair and respectful but have less confidence in their ability to prevent crime than before.  Otherwise, residents’ perceptions generally remained consistent with previous surveys.

• In 2006, 76% of the residents surveyed rated Boston Police officers “excellent” or “good” at being fair and respectful. This is the most positive response the Department has received since the biennial surveys were initiated in 1997. The previous high was 70% in 2001.
• In 2006, 76% of the residents surveyed had “a great deal” or “some” confidence in the BPD’s ability to prevent crime, down from 82% in 2003 and well below the high of 87% in 2001.
• On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being “excellent,” residents rated the quality of life in their neighborhood as a 7.03—approximately the same as in 2003 when it was 7.09. Residents of Roxbury/Mission Hill, however, rated their quality of life as 5.8.
• Citywide, 75% of the residents surveyed in 2006 felt they could rely on a neighbor for help, a small decline from approximately 80% in 2003. Some 73% of the residents surveyed in 2006 reported feeling “somewhat or very safe” when out alone in their neighborhood at night, roughly the same as in 2003. However, only 57% of the residents surveyed in Roxbury/Mission Hill reported feeling somewhat or very safe when out alone in their neighborhood at night.
• In 2006, residents were most likely to identify “litter and trash lying around,” car brake-ins, drug sales, and burglary and vandalism as being serious or somewhat serious problems. In 2003, the same issues were most likely to be identified, except at that time “kids hanging around” was a greater concern and fewer respondents identified burglary as a serious or somewhat serious problem.

Hate crimes are declining in Boston, with a 6% reduction—from 180 incidents in 2004 to 169 in 2006, considerably fewer than the high of 343 in the late 1990s.  Between 2004 and 2006, hate crimes against Jewish and gay people increased while those against blacks and people of Middle Eastern descent declined significantly.

An increasing number of former inmates are re-entering Boston’s neighborhoods on their release from prison, reflecting a sharp increase in the prison population overall.  Between 1980 and 2002, the state’s inmate population more than tripled, increasing from 2,754 to 9,150. As a result, more former inmates are returning to Boston every year.  Of the 250 to 300 inmates discharged each month from the Suffolk County House of Correction, 70% return to Roxbury, Mattapan, Dorchester and other surrounding neighborhoods. Inmates released from federal and state prisons also return to Boston every month, and about 20% of all state prisoners return to Suffolk County.

With increasing levels of cyber-crime sophistication, identity theft and credit card fraud are increasing.  The largest reported breach of credit data in US history occurred in Massachusetts when more than 45 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen from Framingham-based TJX Cos.

The potential for bioterrorism or a bio-disaster in Boston remains a concern.  The Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) is working to improve the City’s ability to detect and respond to a bioterrorism attack. Biological terrorism is the use of biologic agents to cause disease. The BPHC has emergency response plans involving city, state and federal groups—to respond to any disaster. The BPHC estimates that there are at least several hundred labs in Boston working with hazardous biological substances—and a major new research center may open. Neighborhood activists are particularly concerned about Boston University’s ability to safely operate a research facility that is currently under construction where scientists will work with potentially deadly biological agents. In September 2006, Boston became the first major city in the US to pass regulations allowing city officials to monitor research in labs working with such agents. The BPHC now requires licenses for Biosafety Level-3 and Level-4 labs, the federal government's highest-risk designations.