diff --git a/docs/history.rst b/docs/history.rst
index b310248..9d6fa2e 100644
--- a/docs/history.rst
+++ b/docs/history.rst
@@ -6,10 +6,11 @@ Version History
 - Repackage from a module into a package.  Distributing raw modules inside
   of a namespace package is unreliable and questionably correct.
 - Add :func:`sprockets.mixins.mediatype.content.add_transcoder`.
-- Add :class:`sprockets.mixins.mediatype.transcoders.JSONTranscoder`
-- Add :class:`sprockets.mixins.mediatype.transcoders.MsgPackTranscoder`
-- Add :class:`sprockets.mixins.mediatype.transcoders.BinaryWrapper`
+- Add :class:`sprockets.mixins.mediatype.transcoders.JSONTranscoder`.
+- Add :class:`sprockets.mixins.mediatype.transcoders.MsgPackTranscoder`.
+- Add :class:`sprockets.mixins.mediatype.transcoders.BinaryWrapper`.
 - Normalize registered MIME types.
+- Raise a 400 status when content body decoding fails.
 
 `1.0.4`_ (14 Sep 2015)
 ----------------------
diff --git a/sprockets/mixins/mediatype/content.py b/sprockets/mixins/mediatype/content.py
index b0e69a2..73dc0ef 100644
--- a/sprockets/mixins/mediatype/content.py
+++ b/sprockets/mixins/mediatype/content.py
@@ -236,6 +236,7 @@ class ContentMixin(object):
         super(ContentMixin, self).initialize()
         self._request_body = None
         self._best_response_match = None
+        self._logger = getattr(self, 'logger', logger)
 
     def get_response_content_type(self):
         """Figure out what content type will be used in the response."""
@@ -260,8 +261,11 @@ class ContentMixin(object):
         """
         Fetch (and cache) the request body as a dictionary.
 
-        :raise web.HTTPError: if the content type cannot be decoded.
-            The status code is set to 415 Unsupported Media Type
+        :raise web.HTTPError:
+            - if the content type cannot be matched, then the status code
+              is set to 415 Unsupported Media Type.
+            - if decoding the content body fails, then the status code is
+              set to 400 Bad Syntax.
 
         """
         if self._request_body is None:
@@ -273,12 +277,16 @@ class ContentMixin(object):
                                      content_type_header.content_subtype])
             try:
                 handler = settings[content_type]
-                self._request_body = handler.from_bytes(self.request.body)
-
             except KeyError:
                 raise web.HTTPError(415, 'cannot decode body of type %s',
                                     content_type)
 
+            try:
+                self._request_body = handler.from_bytes(self.request.body)
+            except Exception:
+                self._logger.exception('failed to decode request body')
+                raise web.HTTPError(400, 'failed to decode request')
+
         return self._request_body
 
     def send_response(self, body, set_content_type=True):
diff --git a/tests.py b/tests.py
index 9464209..76cb2a4 100644
--- a/tests.py
+++ b/tests.py
@@ -121,6 +121,14 @@ class GetRequestBodyTests(testing.AsyncHTTPTestCase):
         self.assertEqual(response.code, 200)
         self.assertEqual(json.loads(response.body.decode('utf-8')), body)
 
+    def test_that_invalid_data_returns_400(self):
+        response = self.fetch(
+            '/', method='POST', headers={'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
+            body=('<?xml version="1.0"?><methodCall><methodName>echo'
+                  '</methodName><params><param><value><str>Hi</str></value>'
+                  '</param></params></methodCall>').encode('utf-8'))
+        self.assertEqual(response.code, 400)
+
 
 class JSONTranscoderTests(unittest.TestCase):