1997 Malicious Destruction

Malicious Destruction includes tire-slashing, window-smashing, spray-painting, and myriad other crimes in which someone's property is willfully and maliciously damaged or destroyed. It is the most commonly reported crime in Cambridge, accounting for just over 10 percent of the crime total.

Forty to fifty percent of all malicious destruction incidents involve destruction to automobiles; most of these occur overnight to cars parked on the street. Gangs of juveniles are often responsible for a score of such crimes on a single evening. Often, malicious destruction is simply an auto theft or larceny from a motor vehicle that was never carried to its conclusion, leaving a window smashed or a door lock popped. Other common malicious destruction crimes involve graffiti, bricks thrown through windows, and damage to household items during domestic disputes. Likely, a large percentage of all malicious destruction incidents are never reported to the police.

Geographically, malicious destruction reaches its greatest totals in neighborhoods with large numbers of residents and, consequently, cars and houses: Mid-Cambridge, East Cambridge, North Cambridge, and Cambridgeport.

Area	1996	1997	Change	% of Total
East Cambridge	115	110	-4.3%	12.6%
M.I.T. Area	17	16	-5.9%	1.8%
Inman/Harrington	80	75	-6.3%	8.6%
Area 4	99	104	+5.1%	11.9%
Cambridgeport	109	108	-0.9%	12.4%
Mid-Cambridge	93	83	-10.8%	9.5%
Riverside	50	62	+24.0%	7.1%
Agassiz	19	34	+78.9%	3.9%
Peabody	68	57	-16.2%	6.5%
West Cambridge	67	68	+1.5%	7.8%
North Cambridge	82	108	+31.7%	12.4%
Cambridge Highlands	13	25	+92.3%	2.9%
Strawberry Hill	18	23	+27.8%	2.6%
Total	830	873	+5.2%

Patterns of malicious destruction during 1997, included window smashing to businesses in the western half of the city, reported over one night in February; graffiti sprayed on cars in Area 4, reported over one evening in March; rocks thrown through windows in North Cambridge and Peabody, reported in May and June; vandalism to cars parked in the Fresh Pond Apartments lot in North Cambridge in May; tires slashed on automobiles in the Inman/Harrington neighborhood in June; graffiti on the rear doors of Harvard Square (West Cambridge) businesses reported over the Summer; and repeated vandalism to cars parked on Mooney Street and Smith Place in the Cambridge Highlands.

Incidents of graffiti account for seven percent of the malicious destruction total. A high percentage of these defacings of property are not reported to the police. Area 4, North Cambridge and Cambridgeport are the sections of the City with long histories of this type of incident.