The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Mattapan, MA
Mattapan is a city of 40,300 in Suffolk County, about 6 miles south of downtown Boston · Updated November 2026
Is Mattapan, MA safe?
Mattapan is among the higher-crime places in the US: an overall CrimeGrade™ of D+, with more crime than the neighborhoods where 89% of Americans live. Violent crime grades D+ and property crime C-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Mattapan run from B to F, so check the map below.
D+
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 271 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
11% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Mattapan as a whole, and 89% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Mattapan scores 271.
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 crime than most US neighborhoods.
How to read the map: each area's color compares its crime with the people, homes and cars there, on one national scale, from green for the least crime 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 Mattapan, MA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Mattapan, 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 in Mattapan
Car thefts are less common than the crime level suggests. Crime overall in Mattapan runs 40% above the US rate, but car thefts run 45% below it: 1.5 a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.7 nationally.
Burglaries are less common than in most D-graded cities. Mattapan has 1.3 burglaries a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of a D-graded US city, the figure is 4.2.
The safest and least safe parts of Mattapan
High crime is widespread across Mattapan: 66% of residents live in areas graded D or F, and 9% in areas graded A or B. Grades across Mattapan run from B to F; every part of Mattapan has more crime than the typical US neighborhood.
25%66%
A or B 9%C 25%D or F 66%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Mattapan, the southeast side has the least crime and the north side the most.
Is crime going up in Mattapan?
Reported crime in Mattapan has held about steady since 2019: violent crime is up 1% and property crime up 1%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults stayed at about 6.2 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts stayed at about 20 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
MattapanUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Mattapan. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Mattapan
Violent, US
Property, Mattapan
Property, US
2016
+14%
+4%
+9%
+15%
2017
+8%
+4%
+6%
+12%
2018
+2%
+0%
+4%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+7%
+4%
+0%
-8%
2021
-2%
+6%
-8%
-10%
2022
+0%
+5%
-9%
-6%
2023
-0%
+2%
-3%
-7%
2024
+0%
-4%
+1%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Mattapan
CrimeGrade™ estimates Mattapan has about 52 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 40% more than the US as a whole and about double the rate for Massachusetts.
Overall crime
Violent crime
Property crime
Reported crimes a year, per 1,000 residents. These figures include simple assaults and vandalism, which the FBI's violent and property crime rates leave out.
Assault is the most common crime in Mattapan, about 51% of everything reported, and it also accounts for the largest share of what crime costs here.
Each CrimeGrade™ compares a crime with what it affects: people for assaults and robbery, homes for burglary, parked cars for vehicle theft. 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 crime happens in Mattapan
The Boston Police Department polices Mattapan; these figures cover Boston as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In Boston as a whole, 66% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often on streets and sidewalks: 52% of them, against 18% 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)
Robbery
Streets and sidewalks (43%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (43%)
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.
How Mattapan compares with nearby cities
Mattapan has the most crime of its 10 nearest cities.
Two things set Mattapan apart: it has 0.1 parking-lot spaces per resident, against 2.0 nationally, and 9 jobs for every 100 residents, against 45 for the US as a whole. Places like that tend to report less theft, yet theft runs higher here than that would suggest.
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.0.1 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Lower than for 98% of US city residents
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.9 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Lower than for 98% of US city residents
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 and assault.C+ (47 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 90% of US city residents
Show all 6
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.4.2 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 94% of US city residents
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.86% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 94% of US city residents
Transit serviceBuses and trains an hour at the evening rush. Places with busy transit tend to report more theft and robbery. BestNeighborhood's Transit Grade for Mattapan: C (38 of 100).33 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 94% of US city residents
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 crime costs Mattapan
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Mattapan about $2,159 a year per household, 79% more than the US figure of $1,205.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost comes to about $91 million a year, or $2,262 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$4.5 million
$112
Rape
$580,000
$14
Robbery
$1.8 million
$44
Assault
$13 million
$328
Burglary
$480,000
$12
Theft
$2.6 million
$65
Vehicle theft
$920,000
$23
Arson
$35,000
$1
Vandalism
$2.4 million
$60
Total
$27 million
$659
How CrimeGrade™ works
A CrimeGrade™ shows how much crime an area has compared with the rest of the country, from A+ for the least crime to F for the most. Every neighborhood in the US is graded on the same scale, so a B in Mattapan means the same as a B anywhere else.
CrimeGrade™ starts from the crimes people report to police and measures each kind of crime against what it affects: people for assaults, homes for burglaries, parked cars for car thefts.
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.
Schools in Mattapan, MA average a SchoolGrade of D-: 24% of students test proficient, against 23% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in Mattapan on SchoolGrade
