Violent crime in the U.S. dropped in 2023, according to FBI statistics that show a continued trend downward after a coronavirus pandemic-era crime spike.
Overall violent crime declined an estimated 3% in 2023 from the year before, according to the FBI report Monday. Murders and non-negligent manslaughter dropped nearly 12%.
Violent crime has become a focal point 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 2020 pandemic surge, violent crime is down dramatically from the 1990s.
Here's what to know about the FBI's report and the state of crime in the U.S.:
Crime surged during the coronavirus pandemic, with homicides increasing nearly 30% in 2020 over the previous year — the largest one-year jump since the FBI began keeping records. The rise 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 across the U.S. dipped to near pre-pandemic levels in 2022, according to the FBI's data. It continued to tick down last year, with the rate falling from about 377 violent crimes per 100,000 people to in 2022 to about 364 per 100,000 people in 2023. That's just slightly higher than the 2019 rate, according to Deputy Assistant Director Brian Griffith of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division.
“Are we looking at crime rates at a return to pre-pandemic levels? I think a reasonable person would look at that and say, ‘Yes, that’s what has happened,’” Griffith said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Law enforcement agencies in the biggest municipalities in the U.S. — communities with at least 1,000,000 people — showed the biggest drop in violent crime last year — nearly 7%. Agencies in communities between 250,000 and 499,999 people reported a slight increase — 0.3%— between 2022 and 2023.
Rapes decreased more than 9% while aggravated assault decreased nearly 3%. Overall property crime decreased more than 2%, but motor vehicle theft shot up nearly 13%. The motor vehicle theft rate — nearly 319 per 100,000 people — was the highest last year since 2007.
The FBI collects data through its Uniform Crime Reporting Program, and not all law enforcement agencies in the U.S. participate. 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 across the U.S. And every agency with at least 1 million people in its jurisdiction provided a full year of data to the FBI, according to the report.
“What you’re not seeing in that number are a lot of very small agencies," Griffith said.
The FBI’s report is in line with the findings of the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice, which earlier this year analyzed crimes rates across 39 U.S cities, and found that most violent crimes are at or below 2019 levels. That group found there were 13 percent fewer homicides across 29 cities that provided data during the first half of 2024 compared the same period the year before.
On the campaign trail, Trump has cited another recent Justice Department survey to suggest the crime is out of control under the Biden administration.
That National Crime Victimization Survey, released earlier this month, shows that the violent crime victimization rate rose from about 16 per 1,000 people in 2020 to 22.5 in 2023. But the report notes that the rate last year 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's report and the National Crime Victimization Survey use different methodologies and capture different things.
The victimization survey is conducted every year through interviews with about 240,000 people to determine whether they were victims of crimes. While the FBI's data only includes crimes reported to police, the victimization survey also aims to capture crimes that were not.
Because it's done through interviews with victims, the victimization survey doesn't include data on murders. And it only captures crimes against people ages 12 and over.
© Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
59 Comments
John
Crime going down you say?
Golly, that’s inconvenient to the narrative of the cult.
dagon
Trump: Deep state FBI weaponized justice system that is using lawfare to prosecute me is covering for the roving migrant crime bands eating pets in American cities which the Dems brought in to vote for Marxist Harris or is that Biden.
Underworld
So much for MAGA fear mongering about rising crime and migrant crime. It’s all lies.
Reality doesn’t suit MAGA in the run up to the election.
Corey
Underworld
Do you ever watch YouTube? I don’t mean for movies or music. There’s all kinds of crime everywhere in the US - and not just in the major cities like it used to be. It’s anywhere now. And crazy random attacks. Check it out please.
Bob Fosse
So another apocalyptic doom prediction bites the dust.
Of course maga will say the stats are fake but won’t have any of their own except some dodgy named twitter post.
Peter Neil
i’m sure we’ll see some eye rolling twisting, deflection and whataboutism when the maga mob gets here. they’re contacting maga central command now for instructions.
Blacklabel
Law enforcement agencies in the biggest municipalities in the U.S. — communities with at least 1,000,000 people — showed the biggest drop in violent crime last year — nearly 7%. Agencies in communities between 250,000 and 499,999 people reported a slight increase — 0.3%— between 2022 and 2023.
what communities are missing in the data? Communities of less than 1 million.
plasticmonkey
Surely these are far-left statistics. I prefer to do my own research. Twitter is the best place to find reputable information.
Plus, half of my family work in law enforcement, and they all tell me crime is at levels never before seen in the history of the planet.
TaiwanIsNotChina
So the top 10 cities are good but what about the rest!?!? Maybe crime is exploding there!?!?
Peter Neil
the biggest increase in crime has been anti-muslim (up 51%), anti-arab crimes (up 136%) and anti-jewish crimes (up 48%). hate crimes are up 10% in large cities.
car thefts are up 13% nationwide.
dog and cat thefts for nutritional purposes is still zero.
Corey
The commenters here are obviously mainstream news watchers. They don’t watch videos of crimes on YouTube or local news channels. So, they don’t know - or are afraid to know because it would upset their political views.
Blacklabel
Crime is up in the areas that are missing data, the article says such.
wallace
Disappointing news for the Trump campaign.
Nifty
If there is no data, you can just imagine what you like, I suppose. But... there is no data of either a positive or a negative variety in "areas that are missing data." What the article says is that from everyplace they can get data, crime rates are down. It's good news, so I'm sure that you are happy to hear it.
Blacklabel
And crime is still up compared to 2019, also per the article.
wallace
"just slightly higher than the 2019 rate."
John
Law enforcement agencies in the biggest municipalities in the U.S. — communities with at least 1,000,000 people — showed the biggest drop in violent crime last year — nearly 7%. Agencies in communities between 250,000 and 499,999 people reported a slight increase — 0.3%— between 2022 and 2023.
what communities are missing in the data? Communities of less than 1 million.
John
Which they also lacked under Trump. So it’s just as likely that crime in these areas was up under Trump and is down now and there’s no data-based way to disprove that.
Blacklabel
yeah with the leftist media “slightly” has a wide range in the narrative.
yesterday I saw “trump holds a slight lead over Harris “ and I was surprised to see it was 5 points.
So 2022 was also a lot higher than 2019, if 2023 has decreased from 2022 but is still “slightly” higher, right?
Corey
Who believes this FBI data anyway?
Also, just to reflect: Why WOULD crime be down anyway? You mean fewer police and police quitting their jobs is going to make neighborhoods safer?
Blacklabel
in 2023? Who was in charge of the country then? Seems they were negligent.
Bob Fosse
Maybe you could link to a YouTube video all about it.
Wick's pencil
Were there any changes in the reporting of these crimes, or in the collection of data.
Underworld
Corey
Why? I base my opinions on data, not anecdotes.
lincolnman
My, my, our MAGA-friends here sure have their knickers in a twist - the insane conspiracy theories, the increasing gaffes and slurred words, the crashing poll numbers, now lower crime...
Donald will have to go commit some more felonies to bring those numbers up...
Instead of telling his supporters to "fight like hell", he'll start ranting at his rallies telling them to go rob a bank,,,,and of course, he'll also say "I'll be right there with you"....then go hide in his basement...
MAGA-world is crumbling into orange dust...
John
No. It’s the same method.
And as crime geographically correlated across areas of different populations, it’s more likely that crime went down under Biden in these areas and the cult has no evidence to the contrary.
Crime is lower under Biden than it was under Trump.
wallace
Violent crimes are lower than the peaks of the 1990s. Today it's a 50-year low.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Are you under the impression that Trump could have calmed US cities in addition to securing peace in Israel?
Moderator
Readers, once again we ask you not to get fixated on a topic. Once you have posted your comments, please move on to other stories. There is no need to keep posting on this one thread
N. Knight
These statistics are wrong by the FBI which is part of the deep state and despises Donald Trump. The FBI is run and staffed by Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden & and CarMarLa Harris stooges. Deep state ultra left wing, anti-fa, terrorists. (They even think that the earth is round and that vaccines work!)
Everyone knows that crime was almost at zero while Trump was president. It was the lowest crime levels anywhere in the world, everyone knows that. Nobody does crime prevention better than Trump. He's the crime preventer. Everyone knows it. Everyone's talking about it. God has appointed Trump saviour of the world - he saved him twice from assasins)
(How do i change my avatar?)
Some dude
Right now, as we speak, the definition of the words "violent" and "crime" are being mangled into an unrecognisable shape by the Trumpanzees.
Needless to say, if the FBI report had concluded the opposite, i.e. that violent crime was up, they'd be hooting and hurling their bodily waste from the rooftops.
bass4funk
Yeah, I think at this point, no one really believes a word the FBI says.
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2023/07/13/fbi-crime-rates-data-gap-nibrs
No wonder the data is low....and just right before the general election...hmmmm
https://www.axios.com/local/san-francisco/2022/11/29/california-fbi-crime-data-reporting
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/fairness-justice/2953562/bad-data-from-the-fbi-mislead-about-crime/
Underworld
bass4funk
The data is incomplete but accurate. It’s a bit like a high quality poll. Sample size is massive but not 100%.
The conclusion that you can take is that violent crime is down and that immigrant crime is a lie.
John
Yet ANOTHER fever-dream conspiracy from a cult of morons.
N. Knight
Perfectly expressed.
plasticmonkey
Speak for yourself.
You only believe the FBI when it conforms to your fixed narrative.
Same for the polls.
Corey
Underworld
Data can be skewed all kinds of ways. Just like other media. Again, I implore you and others to look at actual videos on YouTube - nothing faked - of crimes all over the country. In places where there was no significant crime before. This is a national emergency. But most of you would rather hide from it to protect your political view. It’s disgraceful.
Strangerland
Is this why MAGA is calling to defund the national police (the FBI)?
Strangerland
Once again the real world chips away at the lies MAGA has been trying to spin.
Violent crime was highest under Trump. Remember that.
Of course, some MAGA will come in here and try to protest what I say, but that only exposes them for staying wilfully ignorant in their far-right fake-news MSM bubble, safe from the truth that Trump is losing really, really bad.
Blacklabel
why would I remember something that isn’t true.
2022 and 2023 were both higher than 2019. Per this article.
Some dude
StrangerlandToday 10:32 am JST
Violent crime was highest under Trump. Remember that.
Of course, some MAGA will come in here and try to protest what I say,
BlacklabelToday 10:38 am JST
why would I remember something that isn’t true.
Like clockwork, just as Strangerland called it.
If Trump made a speech claiming that America was discovered by Marcus Aurelius, MAGA would descend on local schools with their shotguns and force the teachers to rewrite the history books in front of their eyes.
wallace
Reported violent crime rate in the United States from 1990 to 2022
https://www.statista.com/statistics/191219/reported-violent-crime-rate-in-the-usa-since-1990/
Strangerland
And then they get all uppity when I point out I’m almost always right. Like I was proven to be once again in this thread. Look at the crime in 2020 under trump - higher than any year under Biden.
The far right don’t realize that though because Fox lies.
bass4funk
You can believe that, I don't and millions don't.
Uh-huh
violent crime has risen 37%, assault has risen 33%, total property crime has risen
8%, and motor vehicle theft has risen 41%.
In 2019, 89% of agencies covering 97% of the population submitted data, but by 2021, that coverage plummeted to less than 63% of departments overseeing just 65% of the population. Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City all failed to submit crime data. To increase participation, the FBI relaxed the NIBRS requirement in 2022, allowing agencies to report via the legacy system.
Well, you take that, that is your choice, but I won't.
bass4funk
I do, but a lot of people in the nation feel the same.
https://www.deseret.com/politics/2024/07/25/trust-in-fbi/
No, I just don't believe the compromised top leadership of the organization for quite a while now.
No, I just don't believe in many of the pollsters not updating them daily.
Some dude
You can believe that, I don't and millions don't.
Let us fix that for you.
You can believe that, I don't want to and millions don't want to.
burgers and beers
American friend just said to me these crime rates dropped as crimes are not not being reported properly as before. Sounds like fishy, pre-election monkey business. I hope if/when Kamala becomes POTUS this monkey business takes a back seat and we will all just have Joy from then on.
Ken
With as much AI as there is you really believe what you see on youtube?? You are on the side of politics that spreads misinformation and never facts checks. So again this very line here "This is a national emergency. But most of you would rather hide from it to protect your political view. It’s disgraceful." Is literally what you are doing right now
Ken
Is your American friend the watcher or something? It is not reported but they have video recordings and access to records that even detectives can't get their hands on?
Strangerland
The problem with MAGA is that in their low intelligence, they don't realize that by claiming the numbers cannot be trusted, it would also meaning they're lying about crime being up under Biden, since no one would actually know what the numbers were under Trump OR Biden since they can't be trusted.
So either you can trust the numbers, and crime was up under Trump, or you can't trust the numbers, and crime ISN'T up under Biden.
bass4funk
Very true.
https://www.kens5.com/article/news/crime/ai-child-abuse-material-police-technology-crime-artifical-intelligence/273-d9d0e814-38ae-4683-af57-3abcee19239d
I agree.
Ken
Their motto is never believe anything everything is a lie except what comes from Twitter and Fox news, they will never lie to me and if they tell me to jump I ask how high
Some dude
The problem with MAGA is that in their low intelligence, they don't realize that by claiming the numbers cannot be trusted, it would also meaning they're lying about crime being up under Biden, since no one would actually know what the numbers were under Trump OR Biden since they can't be trusted.
So either you can trust the numbers, and crime was up under Trump, or you can't trust the numbers, and crime ISN'T up under Biden.
While you're not wrong about their intelligence, I think they do realise it, and they do have a sort of skill when it comes to arguing against points like this. We see it here:
1) post an irrelevant X/Twitter post from a known troll
2) "lol"
3) Completely ignore what is written and make a completely unrelated comment about "the libs"
Even the dullest of knuckle-draggers know when they've been caught in an intellectual trap, but as they don't have the pride to admit they're wrong, or the ambition to find out the actual facts, they fall back on one or more of the strategies I mentioned above.
DaDude
I can bet my life savings that anyone sitting here on their Japan smartphone bragging about U.S. city safety would ever step foot in any of those cities. Especially at night....
Some dude
No, no one is saying that but since 98% of the media is left
Prove that assertion.
TokyoLiving
Not a good news for Trump and MAGA gang..
Strangerland
No, none of them said that.
Some dude
Making up excuses for him over every little thing is basically you putting him on a pedestal like he is a God to you even though he has desecrated on Christianity more than once with his conman bibles as one example. I share most views that are Democratic but everytime I see the situation with Israel I loudly express how much of a foolish idea I think that is. But again you act like you would lose a limb if you ever said something about holding Trump accountable for his lies and BS
I bet that if, for instance, his kid did something bad, he'd scold them or correct their behaviour. Whereas, as you point out, he rationalises literally everything Trump does, so he does in fact see Trump as a deity.
bass4funk
Everything, we are talking about the credibility of the FBI and it has been less than forthcoming with the truth and facts, even beyond Trump.
No strategy
Because you don't like how the debate is going? This is about the agency, not about the former President. Wray has done a horrible job with the agency, he needs to go and IMHO, they should relocate the department and put it somewhere else like Montana, take it as far about from the Capitol as it would allow.
No, none of them said that.
https://nypost.com/2024/06/14/opinion/of-the-51-top-spies-who-smeared-the-post-not-one-has-regrets/
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/jun/4/erika-jensen-confirms-authenticity-of-hunter-biden/