Violent crime within the United States has fallen in 2023, in accordance with FBI statistics that show a continued downward trend following an increase in crime through the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Monday’s FBI report, overall crime is estimated to have declined by 3% in 2023 in comparison with the previous yr. Murders and manslaughters fell by nearly 12%.
Violent crime has develop into a central issue within the 2024 presidential campaign. Former President Donald Trump recently claimed that crime has “gone through the roof” under President Joe Biden’s administration. Even with the rise of the pandemic in 2020, violent crime has dropped dramatically in comparison with the Nineties.
Here’s what it’s best to know in regards to the FBI report and the crime situation within the United States:
The numbers
During the coronavirus pandemic, crime increased and the variety of homicides increased almost 30% in 2020 in comparison with the previous yr – the biggest single-year increase for the reason that FBI began keeping records. The increase was not easily explained, although experts said possible causes included the huge disruption brought on by the pandemic, gun violence, concerns in regards to the economy and severe stress.
Violent crime within the USA almost dropped to pre-pandemic levels in 2022in accordance with FBI data. It continued to trend downward last yr, with the speed falling from about 377 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2022 to about 364 per 100,000 residents in 2023. That’s only barely higher than the 2019 rate, in accordance with Brian Griffith, deputy director of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division.
“Are we seeing crime rates return to pre-pandemic levels? I think a reasonable person would look at this and say, ‘Yes, that’s what happened,'” Griffith said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Law enforcement agencies in the biggest communities within the United States – communities with at the very least 1,000,000 residents – saw the biggest decline in violent crime last yr – nearly 7%. Agencies in communities between 250,000 and 499,999 residents reported a slight increase – 0.3% – between 2022 and 2023.
Rape rates fell by greater than 9 percent, and aggravated assault rates fell by nearly 3 percent. Overall property crime fell by greater than 2 percent, but auto thefts rose by nearly 13 percent. The variety of auto thefts last yr – nearly 319 per 100,000 residents – was the best since 2007.
The limits of the FBI’s data
The FBI collects data through its Uniform crime reporting programmeand never all law enforcement agencies within the U.S. participate. The 2023 report is predicated on data from greater than 16,000 agencies, or greater than 85 percent of those agencies within the FBI’s program. The agencies included within the report protect nearly 316 million people within the U.S. And every agency with at the very least 1 million people under its jurisdiction provided the FBI with a full yr of information, in accordance with the report.
“What you don’t see in that number are a lot of very small agencies,” Griffith said.
More crime reports
The FBI report is consistent with the findings of the non-partisan criminal justice council, The group analyzed crime rates in 39 U.S. cities earlier this yr and located that the majority violent crimes are at or below 2019 levels. That group found that 29 cities that provided data in the primary half of 2024 had 13 percent fewer murders than in the identical period last yr.
During the election campaign, Trump cited one other recent Justice Department survey that suggested crime was uncontrolled under the Biden administration.
This national survey on victims of crimereleased earlier this month shows that the violent crime victim rate rose from about 16 per 1,000 people in 2020 to 22.5 in 2023. But the report notes that last yr’s rate was not statistically different from the speed in 2019 – when Trump was president. And the speed has dropped dramatically overall for the reason that Nineties.
The FBI report and the National Crime Victimization Survey use different methodologies and measure various things.
The Victim Survey is conducted annually by interviewing roughly 240,000 people to find out whether or not they have been victims of crime. While the FBI’s data only includes crimes reported to police, the Victim Survey goals to capture crimes that weren’t reported to police as well.
Because the victim study is predicated on interviews with victims, it doesn’t contain data on murders. And it only records crimes against people aged 12 and over.
