Fair enough, I would say that qualitatively one would expect higher crime rates in larger cities, just by virtue of their density (and the somewhat greater concentration of poverty, drug dealing, etc.). Relative to crime rates in other major cities in MA, we aren't really an outlier. If you just want to look at how often we hear about crimes, then yes the absolute number comes into play, and we are on the high end because of population (still better than Springfield which has fewer people).