FBI: US Violent Crime Has Dropped to Pre-Pandemic Levels

Facts

• According to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) annual crime report released Monday, violent crime last year dropped 1.6% to levels not seen since before the COVID pandemic. This included a 6.1% drop in murder and non-negligent manslaughter, a 5.4% decrease in rape, and a 1.1% drop in aggravated assault — however, robbery increased by 1.3%.¹
• Murder in big cities has declined even further so far this year, with homicides in Philadelphia dropping from 430 to 344, falling from 538 to 480 in Chicago, and declining from 346 to 311 in New York City. However, murders in Washington, DC reached 200 before October this year for the first time since the 1990s.²
• The increase in property theft includes larceny and motor vehicle theft jumping by 7.8% and 10.9%, respectively, with trade groups saying that organized retail crime has worsened 'exponentially' since before the pandemic — encouraging businesses to implement new security procedures.³
• Regarding fatal gun violence, the number of adult victims fell by 6.6% while the number of juvenile victims jumped by 11.8%. The report also found that assaults on police officers rose by 1.8% compared to 2021, with 31.4K of the 102.1K assaults resulting in injuries, up 1.7% year-over-year.¹
• Hate crimes also increased, with 11,634 hate crime incidents reported in 2022, compared with 10,840 the previous year. The number of LGBTQ victims jumped from 1,711 to 1,947 while Blacks made up almost 52% — with Hispanic and Jewish people also seeing an increase in crimes targeted against them.⁴
• The report consists of data reported by 83.3% of all law enforcement agencies covering 93.5% of the population, up from 62.7% of agencies representing 64.8% of Americans last year.¹

Sources: ¹NBC, ²Washington Post, ³The Crime Report and ⁴The Guardian.

Narratives

• Left narrative, as provided by Human Rights Campaign. With the number of anti-equality laws being passed exponentially rising, it's sadly no surprise that a record of almost 2K hate crimes were committed against LGBTQ people, particularly targeting Black transgender Americans. Violent crime may be dropping for some, but sexual, racial, and religious minorities still face an uphill battle with respect to both legal and physical equality. This is directly related to legislation passed by extremist Republicans, which is why our most vulnerable won't be safe until we fix society at a policy and systemic level.
• Right narrative, as provided by Townhall. Urban crime was caused by and worsened due to liberal policies like cashless bail. So, whether things have changed on a national level or not, it remains a problem in the cities that haven't reversed course. Chicago, for example, has continued to release violent criminals onto the streets and now faces record amounts of crime. Liberal criminal justice policies don't work, because wherever they're still implemented, rates of muggings and violence against police officers continue to rise.