1997 Assault

Aggravated Assault describes an unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury. This type of assault is usually accompanied by the use of a weapon or by means likely to produce death or great bodily harm. Attempts are included since it is not necessary that injury result when a gun, knife, or other weapon is used which could and probably would result in serious personal injury if the crime were successfully completed.

Unlike murder, robbery, and other violent crime, assault is born in the heat of the moment. The motivation behind an assault is rarely personal gain, and the offender often later regrets the incident. Perhaps the most preventable violent crime, many assaults in the making are probably curtailed through the careful use of control and restraint.

However, assault is a very serious crime because of the great risk of critical injury to the victim. Very often, blind luck or quick medical attention is all that separates an aggravated assault from a homicide.

Assault has been on a general increase over the last 20 years. Between 1984 and 1989, it registered about 350 incidents per year; in 1990, it suddenly jumped 41 percent to an unprecedented 614 reports. It peaked at 643 in 1993; since then, it has declined each year. 1997's statistic is the lowest since 1989.

A good portion of these fluctuations can be attributed to the frequency of which the crime is reported rather than the frequency of its actual occurrence. As domestic violence awareness has increased over the last decade, so has the willingness of domestic violence victims to report abuse to the police.

We reported increases in aggravated assault, in the first, second, and third quarters. In the first three months of the year, the crime rose by 21 percent. By the end of June, it was up only 12 percent, and at the end of the third quarter, it had scaled back to five percent. Three months later, after a quiet autumn, the crime is down three percent for the entire year.

Despite advances made by domestic violence victim advocates in recent years, experts estimate that between 60 and 80 percent of domestic assaults are never reported to the police. Very likely, apathy, fear of police contact, embarrassment, and other factors also lead to underreporting of alcohol related fights, assaults between acquaintances, gang fights, and conflicts among the homeless. The result is that assault statistics must be viewed with extreme care.

Area	1995	1996	1997	Change 96–97	% of Total
East Cambridge	44	50	37	-26.0%	10.0%
M.I.T. Area	17	7	7	NC	1.9%
Inman/Harrington	55	34	33	-2.9%	8.9%
Area 4	70	68	69	+1.5%	18.6%
Cambridgeport	61	55	59	+7.3%	15.9%
Mid-Cambridge	43	34	22	-35.3%	5.9%
Riverside	40	36	44	+22.2%	11.9%
Agassiz	8	8	7	-12.5%	1.9%
Peabody	20	18	18	NC	4.9%
West Cambridge	40	18	14	-22.2%	3.8%
North Cambridge	55	43	48	+11.6%	13.0%
Cambridge Highlands	5	7	2	-71.4%	0.5%
Strawberry Hill	5	3	10	+233.3%	2.7%
Total	463	381	370	-2.9%

Since domestic assaults and assaults among acquaintances dominate the percentages, the crime naturally registers high in areas that have a high residential population. These neighborhoods include Cambridgeport, Riverside, and North Cambridge. The total for Cambridgeport is boosted by drunken assaults in or near the neighborhood bars, and the statistic for East Cambridge includes a number of juvenile fights near the mall. The unusually high number of assaults in Strawberry Hill have no relation to each other.

Type	1997	% of Total
Domestic	99	26.8%
Unprovoked	48	13.0%
Juvenile/Gang	47	12.7%
Traffic/Parking	43	11.6%
Acquaintance	39	10.5%
Bar/Liquor	25	6.8%
Shop Owner/Patron	18	4.9%
Homeless	15	4.1%
On Police Officer	14	3.8%
Landlord/Neighbor	7	1.9%
Psychotic Episode	4	1.1%
Workplace	4	1.1%
Other	7	1.9%

As always, domestic assaults account for the largest portion. Domestic assaults and other domestic crimes are reviewed in the Domestic Crimes section of this report. Percentages changed only very little from the 1996 Annual Report.

Simple Assaults, unlike aggravated assaults, are not scored among the Part I Crimes (Index Crimes). Simple assaults do not involve the use of a dangerous weapon (including shoes) and are not intended to cause serious injury. Examples of simple assault include a shove, a punch in the stomach, or a slap in the face. We receive between 575 and 625 reports for simple assault each year.

606 simple assaults were reported in 1997, showing a four percent increase over the 584 reported in 1996 and a two percent increase over the 594 reported in 1995. If lack of reporting is a problem for aggravated assaults, it is probably doubly so for simple assaults, since they do not by definition result in serious injury.

Simple assaults show significant differences in categorization from aggravated assaults. A high 42 percent of simple assaults are domestic in nature, compared to 27 percent of aggravated assaults. The next highest categorization, unprovoked assaults, weighed in at nine percent or 53 incidents. Juvenile assaults and traffic and parking assaults each accounted for eight percent of simple assaults. Acquaintance assaults totaled 43, or seven percent. The remaining categorizations amount to between one and five percent each.