Murder in US continues steep decline, FBI reports
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Overall, violent crime fell 3 per cent and property crime fell 2.6 per cent in 2023, with burglaries down 7.6 per cent and larceny down 4.4 per cent.
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WASHINGTON - The number of murders reported in the United States dropped in 2023 at the fastest rate on record, continuing a decline from the surge in homicides during the pandemic, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported on Sept 23.
The FBI’s report, which is the agency’s final compilation of crime data for 2023, showed that there were about 2,500 fewer homicides in 2023 that year than in 2022, a decline of 11.6 per cent.
That was the largest year-on-year decline since national record-keeping began in 1960, according to Mr Jeff Asher, a crime data analyst based in New Orleans.
Overall, violent crime fell 3 per cent and property crime fell 2.6 per cent in 2023, with burglaries down 7.6 per cent and larceny down 4.4 per cent.
Car thefts, though, continue to be an exception, rising more than 12 per cent from the year before.
The latest data is consistent with earlier preliminary reports from the FBI, and with research from other organisations and criminologists, all showing continuing declines in most crime, including murder.
Even so, crime remains a point of contention in the US presidential race, with the Republican nominee, former president Donald Trump, describing American cities as crime-ridden dystopias.
Polling shows that Americans remain concerned about crime, and that there is a consistent gap between crime data and the public perception of the problem.
For instance, a Gallup poll in 2023 found that 77 per cent of Americans believed crime was rising, even though it was actually falling.
“Perceptions of safety are not driven by numbers in spreadsheets,” said Mr Adam Gelb, chief executive of the Council on Criminal Justice, a non-profit policy research group that produces its own reports on crime in America. “They are about what people see and hear and feel on the streets, on TV and in their social media feeds. They are not sitting around studying the FBI’s website.”
Though the overall trend in crime is downward, there were still 19,252 murders in 2023 in the United States, according to the FBI.
And the progress was not uniform, with some cities, like Washington; Greensboro, North Carolina; and Memphis, Tennessee; showing big increases in homicides in 2023, Mr Asher noted in an analysis he published on Sept 23. NYTIMES
