Roxbury is a neighborhood of 60,700 residents in Boston, about 3 miles southwest of downtown · Updated November 2026
How common is property crime in Roxbury?
Roxbury grades C for property crime, with more of it than the neighborhoods where 83% of Americans live. Theft makes up 59% of it. Burglary, the crime most likely to reach into a home, grades A-, and vehicle theft grades F. Boston as a whole grades B- for property crime.
C
Property crime CrimeGrade™
Safety score 403 of 1,000More property crime than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
17% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more property crime than Roxbury as a whole, and 83% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a property crime safety score of 823, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Roxbury scores 403.
Crime is concentrated in a small share of places, so most neighborhoods score high on the 0 to 1,000 scale. That is why a score in the 800s can still mean more property crime than most US neighborhoods.
How to read the map: each area's color compares its property crime with the homes, parked cars and people there, on one national scale, from green for the least to red for the most. Each area gets its own color, so a busy shopping center can show red while the homes beside it stay green. The interactive maps load faster on a strong connection. Compare high speed internet in Roxbury, Boston, MA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Roxbury in Boston, and anyone thinking about buying or renting a home there.
Business and enterprise customers: this free map shows neighborhood areas. CrimeGrade™ business reports map crime at about 66-meter detail and estimate it for one address and type of business. See business reports
What stands out about property crime in Roxbury
Thefts from cars happen on streets and sidewalks far more often than nationally. In Boston as a whole, 52% of reported thefts from cars happen on streets and sidewalks, against 18% nationally.
How Roxbury compares within Boston
High property crime is widespread across Roxbury: 68% of residents live in areas graded D or F, and 14% in areas graded A or B. Property crime grades across Roxbury run from A- to F.
14%18%68%
A or B 14%C 18%D or F 68%
Share of residents, by the property crime CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Roxbury has less property crime than 8 of the 20 neighborhoods in Boston. It covers much of the Roxbury and Mount Bowdoin areas and the Fenway-Kenmore, South End, and Nubian Square areas.
Is property crime going up in Boston?
Reported property crime in Boston as a whole has held about steady since 2019, within 1%. Burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts stayed at about 20 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 18). Property crime changed little from 2023 to 2024.
Property crime, change since 2019
BostonUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Boston. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Property, Boston
Property, US
2016
+9%
+15%
2017
+6%
+12%
2018
+4%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
2020
+0%
-8%
2021
-8%
-10%
2022
-9%
-6%
2023
-3%
-7%
2024
+1%
-15%
Property crime rates and types in Roxbury
CrimeGrade™ estimates Roxbury has about 33 reported property crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 37% more than the US as a whole and close to Boston as a whole.
All property crime
Burglary
Vehicle theft
Reported crimes a year, per 1,000 residents. Property crime here includes vandalism, which the FBI's property crime rate leaves out.
Theft is the most common property crime in Roxbury, about 59% of the total, followed by vandalism and vehicle theft.
Each CrimeGrade™ here compares a property crime with what it affects: homes for burglary and arson, parked cars for vehicle theft, people and parking for theft, homes and businesses for vandalism. Rates count crimes per 1,000 residents.
Select a crime's name to see its map above. CrimeGrade™ business reports map each crime at about 66-meter detail.
Where and when property crime happens in Boston
The Boston Police Department polices Roxbury; these figures cover Boston as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In Boston as a whole, 66% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Car thefts happen most often on streets and sidewalks: 55% of them, against 27% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (66%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (55%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Streets and sidewalks (52%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (41%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Shares of the crimes reported to police, 2022 to 2024. Reports with no time recorded are left out of the times.
Property crime in Roxbury and nearby neighborhoods
Roxbury has more property crime than 7 of its 10 nearest neighborhoods. Brookline Village and Brookline Village Commercial District have the least property crime nearby.
Among the traits that tend to go with property crime, two set Roxbury apart: it has 49 buses and trains an hour at the evening rush, where most Americans have none nearby, and 97% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. It also combines many jobs with busy transit: places with both tend to report more theft than places with only one of them, and it runs high here.
Transit serviceBuses and trains an hour at the evening rush. Places with busy transit tend to report more theft. BestNeighborhood's Transit Grade for Roxbury: C+ (46 of 100).49 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 86% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more car theft.97% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 85% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Walk GradeBestNeighborhood's grade for getting through daily life on foot, traced along real walking routes to shops, schools and parks. Walkable places tend to report more theft. 76% of residents here live in walkable areas.A- (78 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 83% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft.85 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Higher than for 85% of residents of US city neighborhoods
These traits tend to go with more or less crime; none of them causes it on its own. Sources: Census job counts and housing figures, OpenStreetMap and Overture business listings, CrimeGrade™ parking estimates, NASA night-light imagery, US Forest Service tree cover, EPA transit data and BestNeighborhood's Walk Grade.
What property crime costs Roxbury
Property crime costs Roxbury about $13 million a year, or $217 per resident and about $598 per household: the value of what is stolen or damaged, plus the police, courts and prisons that respond.
Cost of property crime per resident, per year
How CrimeGrade™ works
The property crime CrimeGrade™ covers burglary, theft, car theft, arson and vandalism, from A+ for the least crime to F for the most, on one scale for the whole country.
It weighs each property crime against what it affects: homes for burglary and arson, parked cars for car theft, and the people and parking around stores for theft.
The rates on this page count crimes for every 1,000 people who live here, the way police departments report them.
Comparisons with US neighborhoods use the Census Bureau's block groups, small areas of about 1,400 residents, and count the people who live in each. The figures count crimes reported to police; many crimes, shoplifting above all, never are. Behind the grades, CrimeGrade™ tested 21,607 factors from 125 data families. For business owners, paid CrimeGrade™ location reports estimate crime at a single address for each type of business.
Where the numbers come from
Crime reports that police departments file with the FBI
State crime records and city crime data, where they are published
These are estimates of reported crime for whole areas, not a record of what happened on any one street. CrimeGrade™ updates them once a year and provides them free and without guarantee. Check local sources before you rely on them for a decision.
