Fall River, MA has a F safety grade (18/100) with a violent crime rate of 743 per 100,000, 111% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Fall River, MA Crime Rate & Safety
At 95,573 residents, Fall River is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against MA and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Fall River, MA is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 111% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Fall River, MA shows violent crime at 742.9 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,391.6 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 111% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade F from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
F safety grade
742.9/100K violent
1391.6/100K property
+111% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Fall River, MA
Position in the state cohort
Fall River reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Massachusetts cities
At 742.9 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Fall River ranks 5 of 317 — above 312 of the 316 other Massachusetts cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +416.6% against the cohort median of 143.8. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Comparable rate records
Fall River's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Massachusetts cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Fall River's 742.9 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Ware (694.7), Greenfield (694.6), Tisbury (681.4), Webster (637.7). These are same-year agency submissions that pass the same completeness screen, not a claim that the cities have identical conditions. They make the cohort position above checkable against named records instead of a generic state average.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 34.8% of the 2,040 Part I offenses reported in Fall River for 2024, against a median of 21.4% across comparable Massachusetts cities — a gap of 13.4 points. Offense mix is shaped by which agencies report and how incidents are classified as well as by the underlying offenses, so it describes the reported record rather than a settled difference in conditions.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 877.3 per 100,000 in 2020 to 742.9 in 2024 (-15.3%). The highest observed value was 1003.8 in 2022 and the lowest 742.9 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Fall River's FBI UCR Table 8 municipal row. Per-100,000 rates use the reporting-year population on that row; cities that fail the completeness test stay out of rate rankings. A citywide figure rarely describes any single neighbourhood inside the municipal boundary.
On a large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
Fall River's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 33.1 Census sq mi, Fall River logged 40.2 property and 21.4 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Fall River leans on larceny-theft at 47% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,120.
Violent offenses are 35% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (33.1 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-18.2%
908.6 → 742.9/100K
Property Crime Rate
-3.6%
1443.3 → 1391.6/100K
Property offenses lead Fall River's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs MA
Property Crime
1,330
1391.6
1711
1101.2
Larceny-Theft
952
996.1
-
-
Burglary
221
231.2
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
157
164.3
-
-
Arson
15
15.7
-
-
Violent Crime
710
742.9
352
308.8
Aggravated Assault
553
578.6
-
-
Robbery
96
100.4
-
-
Rape
58
60.7
-
-
Murder
3
3.1
-
-
Fall River Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Fall River property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Fall River Police Department
Reporting agency for Fall River NIBRS-participating
Fall River Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Fall River's 2,040 reported offenses (5-year span 2020-2024).
This agency reports via NIBRS, the incident-based system that captures more detail per offense (multiple crimes per incident, victim/offender data) than the older summary counts.
Similar-Size Cities in Massachusetts
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Massachusetts cities closest to Fall River in population. Their populations run from 81,766 to 116,062, against 95,573 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Fall River at 742.9/100K violent and 1,391.6/100K property - matched below outside Massachusetts (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Fall River reported 710 violent crimes and 1,330 property crimes, for a total of 2,040 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Fall River?
From 2023 to 2024, Fall River's violent crime rate decreased by 18.2%, and the property crime rate decreased by 3.6%.
What is the most common crime in Fall River?
The most common crime type in Fall River is larceny-theft, accounting for 46.7% of all reported crimes (952 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Fall River's rates come from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, CIUS Table 8, vintage 2024.
Incomplete reporters stay out of rate rankings. Cross-check population with Census ACS; state UCR programs for statewide context. Primary verify links: FBI.gov UCR, Census QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (large city): informational crime rates only - not legal, insurance, or personal-safety advice. Source: FBI UCR. Ask a qualified professional before acting.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Fall River, MA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.