Violent crime in the United States is down for a second consecutive year, with law enforcement agencies reporting significant declines in murder and rapes, according to a just-released report from the FBI.
The FBI Crime in the Nation report released Monday found violent crime, overall, fell by 3% from 2022 to 2023, with murder and manslaughter rates dropping by 11.6% and rape down by more than 9%.
There were also smaller declines in the number of robberies and aggravated assaults.
Additionally, property crimes, which include burglary, fell by an estimated 2.4% year over year, though motor vehicle theft jumped by 12.6%.
FBI officials, briefing reporters on the report, described the drop in the number of murders as notable, saying the 11.6% decline is the largest recorded over the past 20 years.
Overall, the officials said the rate of all violent crimes in 2023 was 363.3 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants, down from a rate of 377.1 violent crimes per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022.
More than 16,000 U.S. state and local law enforcement agencies contributed data for the report, including all agencies serving cities with more than one million people.
The decrease in violent crimes across the U.S. continues a trend dating back to 2021, when crime rates fell after a spike in murders in 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic.
The violent crime rate also remains well below a peak in rates during the early 1990s.
Some crimes, though, have seen slight increases, including the number of aggravated assaults with knives, cutting instruments or other weapons.
The number of so-called “strong-arm” robberies – involving intimidation or a threat of the use of force – rose by 3.2%.
Assaults on police officers also jumped to a 10-year high according to the FBI report, including 60 officers murdered in the line of duty.
The number of hate crimes and victims of hate crimes also increased from 2022 to 2023, though FBI officials said the rise could have been impacted by an increase in the number of law enforcement agencies reporting hate crime data.
FBI officials declined to comment on whether the trends and the overall decrease in violent crime from 2022 to 2023 have extended into 2024. But a report issued by the non-partisan Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) in July indicates the number of violent crimes continue to fall.
That study, based on monthly crime rates for dozens of major U.S. cities found murder rates fell by 13% in the first half of 2024 compared to the first six months of 2023. Assaults, assaults with guns and carjacking also fell.
But while the CCJ report called the overall trends encouraging, it noted, “many cities are still experiencing disturbingly high levels of homicide and motor vehicle theft.”
