The rate of reported domestic violence victims per 1,000 residents. Domestic violence includes assaults, sex offenses, and violations of orders of protection among any family members (not just spouses or intimate partners).
Domestic violence has unique negative effects on victims and families. Domestic violence can cause serious and permanent emotional and psychological damage, which hurts one's quality of life and ability to contribute to society and perform at work.
In 2024, there were 3.7 reported victims of domestic violence per 1,000 residents in Essex County, similar to 2020. This was slightly lower than the state rate of 4.1.
Within Essex County, Lynn and Haverhill had the highest rates of reported domestic violence victims in 2024 (8.5 and 7.1 respectively), followed by Salem (5.4).
Essex County had a higher rate of reported domestic violence victims than Middlesex (2 per 1,000) in 2024. Comparable data for Lake, IL and Westchester, NY was not available.
As a rule, domestic violence tends to be underreported, causing possible inconsistencies in the data and difficulty in making long-term comparisons. Rates reflect reported victims, not the number of individual incidents.
The City of Lawrence did not report data prior to 2020 so county-wide rates are not fully comparable prior to this year. Comparable data for the nation and other areas were not available.
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essex County, MA | 3.1 | 3.1 | 2.8 | 2.7 | 2.8 | 3.0 | 3.3 | 3.7 | 3.4 | 3.7 |
| Amesbury | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.0 | 2.5 | 2.8 | 2.3 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 |
| Beverly | 2.9 | 3.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.5 | ||
| Gloucester | 4.7 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 4.2 | 3.7 | 2.9 | 3.5 | 4.4 | 4.1 | 2.8 |
| Haverhill | 7.8 | 6.8 | 6.9 | 6.9 | 6.9 | 6.8 | 8.5 | 9.1 | 8.3 | 7.1 |
| Lawrence | 3.5 | 3.7 | 3.7 | 2.8 | 3.2 | |||||
| Lynn | 7.3 | 6.9 | 5.8 | 5.4 | 5.3 | 5.2 | 6.1 | 7.7 | 6.7 | 8.5 |
| Methuen | 1.1 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 2.8 | 3.0 | 3.3 | 3.3 | 3.7 | 4.1 |
| Newburyport | 1.7 | 1.2 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 1.6 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.2 |
| Peabody | 3.0 | 4.4 | 4.0 | 3.9 | 3.8 | 3.3 | 3.2 | 3.5 | 3.7 | 4.1 |
| Salem | 5.3 | 5.6 | 5.6 | 5.9 | 7.0 | 6.0 | 4.8 | 6.6 | 4.7 | 5.4 |
| Andover | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.9 | 1.7 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.3 | 1.4 |
| Boxford | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0.3 | ||
| Danvers | 2.2 | 2.1 | 2.0 | 2.4 | 2.2 | 1.9 | 2.8 | 2.0 | 1.1 | 0.8 |
| Essex | 2.1 | 2.1 | 2.2 | 1.9 | 2.2 | |||||
| Georgetown | 1.7 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 2.0 | 0.7 |
| Groveland | 1.5 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.1 | |||
| Hamilton | 0.6 | 1.4 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 0.9 |
| Ipswich | 1.9 | 2.2 | 1.8 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.8 | |
| Lynnfield | 1.7 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 1.9 | 1.2 |
| Manchester | 0.2 | 0.8 | 1.3 | |||||||
| Marblehead | 2.0 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.5 |
| Merrimac | 0.9 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 2.1 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 1.8 | 2.7 | 1.3 | 1.0 |
| Middleton | 1.2 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 1.9 |
| Nahant | 1.7 | 1.4 | 3.1 | 2.3 | 2.9 | 1.7 | 2.0 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 2.1 |
| Newbury | 3.4 | 2.9 | 2.3 | 3.2 | 2.4 | 1.8 | 2.2 | 2.4 | 2.8 | 1.4 |
| North Andover | 1.3 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.9 |
| Rockport | 3.2 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 2.5 | 2.6 | 1.7 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Rowley | 1.3 | 1.7 | 2.7 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.2 |
| Salisbury | 5.5 | 6.3 | 6.8 | 7.2 | 4.5 | 2.6 | 4.5 | 3.8 | 4.9 | 4.1 |
| Saugus | 3.2 | 3.2 | 3.4 | 2.8 | 3.0 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 2.2 | 3.1 | 3.1 |
| Swampscott | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.8 |
| Topsfield | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| Wenham | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 0.4 | 0.8 |
| West Newbury | 0.7 | 1.3 | 2.4 | 1.5 | 1.9 | 2.1 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Middlesex County, MA | 2.5 | 2.4 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 2.1 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.1 | 2.1 | 2.0 |
| Massachusetts | 3.8 | 3.7 | 3.6 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.8 | 3.9 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.1 |
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essex County, MA | 2,424 | 2,403 | 2,227 | 2,160 | 2,222 | 2,360 | 2,636 | 3,014 | 2,711 | 2,984 |
| Amesbury | 57 | 60 | 60 | 52 | 43 | 50 | 41 | 57 | 59 | 60 |
| Beverly | 117 | 125 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 105 | ||
| Gloucester | 140 | 130 | 132 | 128 | 112 | 88 | 109 | 132 | 123 | 84 |
| Haverhill | 488 | 430 | 435 | 440 | 442 | 437 | 554 | 611 | 558 | 478 |
| Lawrence | 279 | 303 | 326 | 249 | 284 | |||||
| Lynn | 671 | 641 | 538 | 514 | 496 | 493 | 586 | 783 | 680 | 863 |
| Methuen | 53 | 16 | 34 | 17 | 143 | 151 | 171 | 173 | 197 | 221 |
| Newburyport | 30 | 21 | 30 | 20 | 29 | 22 | 12 | 23 | 23 | 22 |
| Peabody | 155 | 233 | 210 | 205 | 203 | 176 | 174 | 189 | 199 | 220 |
| Salem | 226 | 240 | 241 | 255 | 306 | 261 | 211 | 299 | 212 | 241 |
| Andover | 48 | 54 | 69 | 60 | 48 | 47 | 60 | 64 | 47 | 50 |
| Boxford | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | ||
| Danvers | 62 | 58 | 56 | 67 | 62 | 52 | 78 | 56 | 31 | 23 |
| Essex | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | |||||
| Georgetown | 15 | 11 | 11 | 13 | 9 | 13 | 11 | 13 | 17 | 6 |
| Groveland | 10 | 9 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 1 | |||
| Hamilton | 5 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 11 | 6 | 10 | 7 |
| Ipswich | 26 | 30 | 26 | 21 | 15 | 17 | 7 | 4 | 11 | |
| Lynnfield | 21 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 14 | 13 | 25 | 15 |
| Manchester | 1 | 4 | 7 | |||||||
| Marblehead | 41 | 31 | 41 | 32 | 22 | 26 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 30 |
| Merrimac | 6 | 12 | 7 | 15 | 16 | 7 | 13 | 18 | 9 | 7 |
| Middleton | 12 | 15 | 15 | 20 | 15 | 4 | 14 | 15 | 10 | 19 |
| Nahant | 6 | 5 | 11 | 8 | 10 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| Newbury | 24 | 20 | 16 | 23 | 17 | 13 | 16 | 16 | 19 | 9 |
| North Andover | 37 | 44 | 34 | 37 | 21 | 41 | 13 | 28 | 15 | 28 |
| Rockport | 23 | 12 | 12 | 18 | 19 | 12 | 15 | 14 | 10 | 10 |
| Rowley | 8 | 11 | 17 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 1 |
| Salisbury | 51 | 59 | 65 | 69 | 43 | 25 | 44 | 35 | 45 | 38 |
| Saugus | 89 | 89 | 96 | 81 | 86 | 64 | 79 | 62 | 90 | 88 |
| Swampscott | 13 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 13 |
| Topsfield | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| Wenham | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 4 |
| West Newbury | 3 | 6 | 11 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| Middlesex County, MA | 3,987 | 3,823 | 3,634 | 3,678 | 3,440 | 3,184 | 3,187 | 3,350 | 3,394 | 3,305 |
| Massachusetts | 25,413 | 25,244 | 24,573 | 24,274 | 24,399 | 26,282 | 27,238 | 27,927 | 28,275 | 28,698 |
| INDICATORS | TREND | ESSEX COUNTY |
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