The number of murders in the United States decreased by 16% in 2024 and continued downwards after the latest crime trends in recent times report From the Council on Criminal Justice, a non -partisan thought factory.
Murders staggered In the first years of Covid 19 pandemic, the crime became a central focus of President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign in 2024. insisted on it The fact that FBI crime data that showed declines was “wrong” and claimed that the crime was “through the roof”. The second Trump government is expected to pursue a tough approach to crime.
It is also expected that the nationwide state legislation is being prioritized this year a variety of criminal justice measures, including prison supervision, illegal immigration, theft and police work procedures. Surveys show that most Americans see crimes as an vital problem, albeit in recent years.
The Council for Criminal Justice, known as CCJ, Collect data From individual law enforcement agencies for his two -year reports on crime trends, which means that the data is new than the annual report of the FBI. However, both the reports of the Think tank and the FBI show a similar turn of violent crime.
In 2023, the criminal murder, which the FBI was defined as a murder or not negligible manslaughter, was 11.6% back over the previous year. After the annual crime of the FBI, it was the greatest decline in the individual years in two decades report Published last year.
The CCJ report shows that the downward trend in 2024 seems to have dropped by 16% compared to 2023. This waste corresponds to 631 less murders in the 29 cities, which provided data for the category, according to the council’s report.
If this decline applies if more jurisdiction reports your data later this year to the FBI, according to the report, the largest one -year -olds have been in 2024 since at least 1960, the beginning of state-of-the-art record perception.
A political topic
Despite the latest decline in murders, crime remains a politically outstanding topic. A majority of Americans – 56% – believe that the national crime has increased or viewed as “extreme” or “very” solemn problem. According to Gallups annually Opinion poll.
The perception of crime is strongly influenced by political belonging. The survey showed that 60% of the Democrats believe that the crime decreased last year, while 90% of Republicans believe that they have increased.
Some crime experts say that media reports, political messaging and viral social media posts could overdo the worries of the Americans and are more common than actually. Nevertheless, some individual cities and districts may have higher crime rates, which could further explain these concerns.
“We still have problems with crime, still have problems in the criminal justice system, and although the crime rate improves, we should not focus on crime and criminal justice,” said Ernesto Lopez, co-author of the report and a senior research specialist at the council In an interview with Stateline.
The council analyzed the crime trends in 40 US cities, although not all cities had data available for any kind of criminal offense.
Among the cities examined, 22 recorded a decline in the murders last year, with Chandler, Arizona and Little Rock, Arkansas, recorded the greatest withdrawal at 50% and 43%. Six cities recorded increases, Colorado Springs, Colorado, with a jump of 56%.
Although the crime rates improved, we should not focus on crime and criminal justice.
– Ernesto Lopez, Senior Research Specialist at Council on Criminal Justice
When comparing the murder rates between 2019 and 2024, the council’s study study recorded a decline of 6%, which was largely due to cities with traditionally high murder rates such as Baltimore and St. Louis.
Murders are still above the pre-Pandemic level in some cities, including the pre-pandemic levels New York City And Washington, DC In New York City, for example, there were 382 murders compared to 319 in 2019. In Washington, DC, there were murders in 2019 in 2024 and 166.
Other crimes
The CCJ report also examined trends in other violent and ownership crimes, including weapons attack, carjacking, theft of motor vehicles and drug offenses. Most of these crimes were lower in 2024 than in 2023, with shop theft was the only exception and showed an enhance of 14%. In 2024, shoplifting was 1% higher compared to 2019.
The researchers were surprised that the shoplifting rates rose last year, although retailers took more measures to combat behavior, e.g. B. the locking of goods behind glass. Some experts say that the enhance may reflect improved reporting and not an actual enhance in theft.
Last year, the state legislation focused on the theft of retail, and this animated is likely to be continued this year, with the legislators of Maryland already considered one The invoice Goal to remedy organized retail theft organized on a huge scale.
From 2023 to 2024, the overrun of the robbery fell by 10%, carjackings fell by 32%and the theft of the motor vehicle by 24%.
Violent crimes such as sexual assault, domestic violence and robbery are now below the pre-pandemic level, but increased attacks, weapon attacks and carjackings remain higher than in 2019.
Crime criminal trends in the past five years have been different. Burglaries and theft decreased, while the burglaries did not resume burglaries. Motor vehicle thefts rose by 53%and drug violations decreased by 28%.
