Lawrence, MA has a C safety grade (48/100) with a violent crime rate of 440 per 100,000, 25% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Lawrence, MA Crime Rate & Safety
At 89,600 residents, Lawrence 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.
Lawrence, MA carries a PlainCrime C safety grade with violent crime 25% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Lawrence, MA shows violent crime at 439.7 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 998.9 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 25% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade C from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
C safety grade
439.7/100K violent
998.9/100K property
+25% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Lawrence, MA
Position in the state cohort
Lawrence reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Massachusetts cities
At 439.7 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Lawrence ranks 24 of 317 — above 293 of the 316 other Massachusetts cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +205.8% 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
Lawrence's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Massachusetts cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Lawrence's 439.7 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Cambridge (436.7), Revere (444.8), Northampton (445.1), Taunton (447.7). 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 30.6% of the 1,289 Part I offenses reported in Lawrence for 2024, against a median of 21.4% across comparable Massachusetts cities — a gap of 9.2 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 448.8 per 100,000 in 2020 to 439.7 in 2024 (-2.0%). The highest observed value was 502.1 in 2022 and the lowest 439.7 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Lawrence'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.
Lawrence's 2024 municipal footprint
Lawrence's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (59% of 1,289 offenses; mix index 4,160).
Violent offenses are 31% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (when validated); 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
-8.3%
479.5 → 439.7/100K
Property Crime Rate
-6.5%
1068.3 → 998.9/100K
Property offenses lead Lawrence's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
895
998.9
1711
Larceny-Theft
763
851.6
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
67
74.8
-
Burglary
65
72.5
-
Arson
1
1.1
-
Violent Crime
394
439.7
352
Aggravated Assault
312
348.2
-
Robbery
47
52.5
-
Rape
28
31.3
-
Murder
7
7.8
-
Lawrence Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Lawrence 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
Lawrence Police Department
Reporting agency for Lawrence NIBRS-participating
Lawrence Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Lawrence's 1,289 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 Lawrence in population. Their populations run from 73,123 to 106,650, against 89,600 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Lawrence at 439.7/100K violent and 998.9/100K property - matched below outside Massachusetts (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Lawrence reported 394 violent crimes and 895 property crimes, for a total of 1,289 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Lawrence?
From 2023 to 2024, Lawrence's violent crime rate decreased by 8.3%, and the property crime rate decreased by 6.5%.
What is the most common crime in Lawrence?
The most common crime type in Lawrence is larceny-theft, accounting for 59.2% of all reported crimes (763 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Lawrence'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 Lawrence, MA rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.