With crime on the election agenda, FBI gives final 2023 crime stats
Posted on 09/24/2024
Annual data released by the FBI on Monday confirms a clear decline in both violent crime and property crime last year, with homicides and reported rapes accounting for the biggest drops.
The data shows that car theft was one of the few crimes with a notable increase between 2022 and 2023, up an estimated 20 percent.
The FBI’s 2023 Crime in the Nation Report is based on submissions of reported crime from 16,334 law enforcement agencies, representing the vast majority of the American population. All large police departments that cover regions with more than 1 million residents, including New York and Los Angeles, contributed to the report.
The report was released as former president and 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump has questioned the veracity of crime statistics while campaigning, blaming the Biden administration and Democrats for what he has falsely portrayed as “crime-ridden cities like we’ve never seen before.”
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According to the report, violent crime dropped 3 percent between 2022 and 2023, with murder and nonnegligent homicide down 11.6 percent. Reported rape offenses dropped 9.4 percent. Property crime decreased 2.4 percent.
The drop in murders in 2023 was the largest year-over-year decline reported by the FBI in 20 years. In 2022, there were 6.5 murders for every 100,000 people. In 2023, there were 5.7 murders for every 100,000 people.
Crime soared during the pandemic, and many of the drops being reported reflect a recovery from the 2020 and 2021 spikes. The 2019 murder rate — 5.2 murders per 100,000 people — was slightly lower than last year. The rate of aggravated assault — 264.1 per 100,000 people — is also still higher than the 247.9 per 100,000 people in 2019.
All reported violent crime rates, however — murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — are either on par with or dramatically lower than they were in 2004, according to the statistics compiled by the FBI.
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The new data shows that reported hate crimes remained largely the same between 2022 and 2023.
The FBI has not yet released data for the first half of this year. But figures for 69 U.S. cities compiled by the Major City Chiefs Association show a continuation of the sharp drop in killings seen in 2023, with homicides down 17 percent compared with the same six-month period from the prior year.
The FBI data released Monday by definition reflects only reported crime — and would not include a rape, assault or property crime that occurred but was not reported to police.
Law enforcement officials have credited the drop in violent crime in part to a renewed focus on gun crimes — analyzing evidence faster, hitting suspects with federal charges where possible, and quickening the pace of arrests to prevent tit-for-tat violence.
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The Justice Department also released its 2023 Criminal Victimization report this month. That report, which does not include deadly crime, draws its data from surveys administered throughout the year and does not rely on victims reporting crimes to law enforcement. The survey found that the rate of non-deadly violent crime was largely similar between 2022 and 2023. In urban areas, property crime reported by survey participants was up.
The data shows that car theft was one of the few crimes with a notable increase between 2022 and 2023, up an estimated 20 percent.
The FBI’s 2023 Crime in the Nation Report is based on submissions of reported crime from 16,334 law enforcement agencies, representing the vast majority of the American population. All large police departments that cover regions with more than 1 million residents, including New York and Los Angeles, contributed to the report.
The report was released as former president and 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump has questioned the veracity of crime statistics while campaigning, blaming the Biden administration and Democrats for what he has falsely portrayed as “crime-ridden cities like we’ve never seen before.”
Advertisement
According to the report, violent crime dropped 3 percent between 2022 and 2023, with murder and nonnegligent homicide down 11.6 percent. Reported rape offenses dropped 9.4 percent. Property crime decreased 2.4 percent.
The drop in murders in 2023 was the largest year-over-year decline reported by the FBI in 20 years. In 2022, there were 6.5 murders for every 100,000 people. In 2023, there were 5.7 murders for every 100,000 people.
Crime soared during the pandemic, and many of the drops being reported reflect a recovery from the 2020 and 2021 spikes. The 2019 murder rate — 5.2 murders per 100,000 people — was slightly lower than last year. The rate of aggravated assault — 264.1 per 100,000 people — is also still higher than the 247.9 per 100,000 people in 2019.
All reported violent crime rates, however — murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — are either on par with or dramatically lower than they were in 2004, according to the statistics compiled by the FBI.
Advertisement
The new data shows that reported hate crimes remained largely the same between 2022 and 2023.
The FBI has not yet released data for the first half of this year. But figures for 69 U.S. cities compiled by the Major City Chiefs Association show a continuation of the sharp drop in killings seen in 2023, with homicides down 17 percent compared with the same six-month period from the prior year.
The FBI data released Monday by definition reflects only reported crime — and would not include a rape, assault or property crime that occurred but was not reported to police.
Law enforcement officials have credited the drop in violent crime in part to a renewed focus on gun crimes — analyzing evidence faster, hitting suspects with federal charges where possible, and quickening the pace of arrests to prevent tit-for-tat violence.
Advertisement
The Justice Department also released its 2023 Criminal Victimization report this month. That report, which does not include deadly crime, draws its data from surveys administered throughout the year and does not rely on victims reporting crimes to law enforcement. The survey found that the rate of non-deadly violent crime was largely similar between 2022 and 2023. In urban areas, property crime reported by survey participants was up.
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