Murder Rate Drops at 'Fastest Pace Ever Recorded'

FBI says it fell 11.3% last year, with smaller drops in other violent crimes
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 24, 2024 7:11 PM CDT
FBI Says Murder Rate Has Dropped Sharply
   (Getty Images/kilukilu)

While you wouldn't know it from a lot of campaign rhetoric, violent crime rates are falling in the US, especially the murder rate, according to data released by the FBI this week. The 2023 Crime in the Nation report released Monday found that the murder rate continued its decline from a surge during the pandemic and fell 11.3% last year. "That's the fastest pace ever recorded," former CIA data analyst Jeff Asher tells ABC News. "That eclipses 1996 when murder fell by 9.1%, which was previously the largest one-year decline ever recorded."

The FBI said that according to data from more than 16,000 law enforcement agencies covering around 95% of the population, reported rapes fell 9.4% last year and aggravated assault figures fell 2.8%.

  • The FBI hasn't released figures for 2024 yet, but the Major City Chiefs Association said in a July report that the murder rate in 69 cities was down 17% in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2023, the Washington Post reports.
  • The 2023 murder rate remained slightly above the 2019 murder rate despite big drops from 2020 and 2021, but all the 2023 violent crime rates reported by the FBI "are either on par with or dramatically lower than they were in 2004," the Post notes.

  • The FBI said overall property crime was down 2.8% in 2023, with a 7.6% drop in burglaries, ABC News reports. But car theft was an exception, with a 12.6% rise last year.
  • According to the FBI's figures, there were 19,252 murders in the US last year. The Times reports that in an analysis Monday, Asher noted that the murder rate didn't fall everywhere, with cities including Washington, DC; Greensboro, North Carolina; and Memphis, Tennessee seeing large increases in homicides in 2023.
(More murder rate stories.)

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