By LINDSAY WHITEHURST (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — New FBI statistics reveal that overall violent crime in the United States decreased again last year, continuing a downward trend after a spike during the pandemic.
In the last three months of 2023, murders decreased by 13% compared to the same period the previous year, according to FBI data released this week. Overall, violent crime decreased by 6%.
Property crime also decreased by about 3% nationwide, but increased by about the same amount in the Northeast and in major cities with over a million people.
The quarterly report released on Tuesday is based on data provided to the FBI by about 80% of law enforcement agencies in the country. Detailed data for 2023 is expected to be released in the fall.
President Joe Biden mentioned that the drop in the murder rate was one of the steepest in the country's history. He said that the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed in 2021 by a Democratic-led Congress and signed by Biden, allowed cities and states to invest $15 billion in public safety.
Attorney General Merrick Garland described the data as encouraging and highlighted law enforcement efforts to address gangs, illegal guns, and other issues.
The FBI's report aligned with the findings of the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice, which discovered that homicides decreased by an average of 10% in a survey of 32 cities compared to the previous year. However, it found that violent crime remained higher than before the coronavirus pandemic in many cities.
Homicides had a sharp 29% increase in 2020, the largest one-year jump since the FBI started keeping records. The reasons for the rise were not simple to explain, although experts suggested possible factors such as the major disruption of the pandemic, gun violence, concerns about the economy, and intense stress.
Crime seemed to remain at a stable level the following year, but due to an overhaul in data collection at the FBI, many major cities were not included in the report for that year.
FBI data indicated that violent crime decreased across the US in 2022, getting closer to pre-pandemic levels, although property crimes increased that year.
