WASHINGTON — New FBI statistics show that overall violent crime in the U.S. fell again last year, continuing a downward trend after a pandemic-era spike.
According to FBI data released this week, homicides fell 13% in the last three months of 2023 compared to the same period the year before. Violent crime fell by 6% in total.
Property crime also fell by about 3% nationwide, although it rose by about the same percentage in the Northeast and in major cities with well over a million people.
The quarterly report released Tuesday is based on data sent to the FBI by about 80% of the nation’s law enforcement agencies. The final detailed data for 2023 is expected to be released in the autumn.
President Joe Biden said the decline in the murder rate was one of the steepest in the country’s history. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed in 2021 by a Democratic-led Congress and signed by Biden, allowed cities and states to invest $15 billion in public safety, he said.
Attorney General Merrick Garland called the data encouraging and praised law enforcement efforts to tackle gangs, illegal weapons and other issues.
The FBI’s report echoed findings from the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice, which found that homicide rates fell by an average of 10% over the past year in a survey of 32 cities, although violent crime was still found to be higher than before the crisis. coronavirus pandemic in many cities.
Homicides saw a steep increase of 29% in 2020, the largest increase in a single year since the FBI began keeping data. The increase was not easily explained, although experts said possible causes included the massive disruption of the pandemic, gun violence, worries about the economy and intense stress.
The following year, crime appeared to remain stable, although a review of data collection at the FBI resulted in many major cities being left out of the report that year.
FBI data shows that violent crime in the US fell in 2022, reaching near pre-pandemic levels, although property crimes rose that year.