FBI finds violent crime declined in 2023. Here’s what to know about the report
WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — Violent crime in the U.S. fell in 2023, according to FBI statistics, showing a continued downward trend after a spike in crime during the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Monday’s FBI report, overall violent crime is estimated to have fallen 3% in 2023 from the previous year. Murders and non-negligent manslaughter fell nearly 12%.
Violent crime has become a key issue in the 2024 presidential race, with former President Donald Trump recently claiming that crime is “through the roof” under President Joe Biden’s administration. Even with the pandemic surge of 2020, violent crime is down dramatically from the 1990s.
Here’s what you need to know about the FBI report and the state of crime in the US:
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Crime has increased during the coronavirus pandemic, with a rise in murders almost 30% in 2020 from the previous year — the biggest one-year jump since the FBI began keeping records. The increase defied easy explanation, though experts said possible contributors included the massive disruption of the pandemic, gun violence, worries about the economy and intense stress.
Violent Crime in the US fell to near pre-pandemic levels in 2022According to FBI data, it continued to decline last year, dropping from about 377 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 2022 to about 364 per 100,000 people in 2023. That’s slightly higher than the 2019 rate, according to Principal Deputy Assistant Director Brian Griffith of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division.
“Are we looking at crime rates returning to pre-pandemic levels? I think any reasonable person would look at that and say, ‘Yes, that’s what happened,’” Griffith said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Law enforcement agencies in the largest U.S. municipalities — communities with at least 1,000,000 residents — saw the largest decline in violent crime last year — nearly 7%. Agencies in communities between 250,000 and 499,999 residents reported a slight increase — 0.3% — between 2022 and 2023.
Rapes fell by more than 9 percent, while aggravated assaults dropped by almost 3 percent. Overall property crime fell by more than 2 percent, but motor vehicle thefts shot up by almost 13 percent. The rate of motor vehicle thefts — nearly 319 per 100,000 people — last year was the highest since 2007.
The FBI collects data through its Uniform Crime Reporting Programand not all law enforcement agencies in the U.S. are participating. The 2023 report is based on data from more than 16,000 agencies, or more than 85 percent of those agencies in the FBI’s program. The agencies included in the report protect nearly 316 million people in the U.S. And every agency with at least 1 million people in its jurisdiction provided a full year’s worth of data to the FBI, the report said.
“What you don’t see in that number is the many small agencies,” Griffith said.
The FBI report is consistent with the findings of the independent Criminal Law Council, who analyzed crime rates in 39 U.S. cities earlier this year and found that most violent crime rates are at or below 2019 levels. That group found that homicides were down 13 percent in the first half of 2024 in 29 cities that reported data compared to the same period the year before.
During his campaign, Trump cited another recent Justice Department study showing excessive crime under the Biden administration.
That national survey on crime victimizationA report released earlier this month shows that the rate of violent crime victims rose from about 16 per 1,000 people in 2020 to 22.5 in 2023. But the report notes that last year’s rate was not statistically different from the rate in 2019 — when Trump was president. And the rate has declined dramatically overall since the 1990s.
The FBI report and the National Crime Victimization Survey use different methodologies and record different findings.
The victim assessment is conducted each year by interviewing approximately 240,000 people to determine whether they have been victims of crime. While the FBI’s data only includes crimes that have been reported to law enforcement, the victim assessment is also designed to capture crimes that have not been.
Because it is conducted through interviews with victims, the victim survey does not include data on homicides. And it only records crimes against people 12 and older.