The crime rate in Scarborough is considerably higher than the national average across all communities in America from the largest to the smallest, although at 16 crimes per one thousand residents, it is not among the communities with the very highest crime rate. The chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime in Scarborough is 1 in 61. Based on FBI crime data, Scarborough is not one of the safest communities in America. Relative to Maine, Scarborough has a crime rate that is higher than 90% of the state's cities and towns of all sizes.

How does the crime rate in Scarborough compare to similar sized communities across America? When NeighborhoodScout compared Scarborough with other communities its size, we found that the crime rate was near the average for all other communities of similar size. So, whether Scarborough's crime rate is high or low compared to all places in the US, when we control for population size and compare it to places that are similar in size, it is near the middle of the pack in crime rate; not much more or less dangerous, and about what we would expect from the statistics.

Now let us turn to take a look at how Scarborough does for violent crimes specifically, and then how it does for property crimes. This is important because the overall crime rate can be further illuminated by understanding if violent crime or property crimes (or both) are the major contributors to the general rate of crime in Scarborough.

For Scarborough, NeighborhoodScout found that the violent crime rate is well below the national average for all communities of all population sizes. Violent crimes such as assault, rape, murder and armed robbery happen less often in Scarborough than in most of America. One's chance of becoming a victim of a violent crime here is one in 1548, which is a violent crime rate of 1 per one thousand inhabitants.

NeighborhoodScout's analysis also reveals that Scarborough's rate for property crime is 16 per one thousand population. This makes Scarborough a place where there is an above average chance of becoming a victim of a property crime, when compared to all other communities in America of all population sizes. Property crimes are motor vehicle theft, arson, larceny, and burglary. Your chance of becoming a victim of any of these crimes in Scarborough is one in 64.