Highlights
A quick overview of violent crime data from the Center For Disease Control and additional federal and reputable sources.
“It is the largest increase in 100 years,” said Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at NCHS.
Author
CDC
From The Crime Report: Adding an additional note of urgency to reports about the homicide spike last year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released data on Wednesday showing that the murder rate for the U.S. rose 30 percent between 2019 and 2020, the highest increase recorded in modern history, according to CNN.
This research confirms through public health data a rise in homicides that so far had only been identified through crime statistics. The new data show the U.S. homicide rate increased from about six homicides per 100,000 people in 2019 to 7.8 per 100,000 in 2020, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
“It is the largest increase in 100 years,” said Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at NCHS.
FBI
The FBI released “final” crime data for 2020 on September 27, 2021, based on crimes reported to law enforcement agencies.
The data shows that the number of homicides increased nearly 30% from 2019, the largest single-year increase the agency has recorded since it began tracking these crimes in the 1960s.
The violent crime rate rose 5.2 percent.
The estimated number of aggravated assault offenses rose 12.1 percent, and the volume of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter offenses increased 29.4 percent.
Property crime continues to decrease.
Only 41 percent of violent crimes in the US are reported to law enforcement, Largest Single Year Increase.
Bureau of Justice Statistics, USDOJ
We have a 28 percent increase in all violent crime (including simple assaults) per the National Crime Victimization Survey (2015-2018), with increases in serious violence, and the presumption that this applies to 2019 (no change in violent crime in 2019 when including simple assaults per the Bureau of Justice Statistics), US Crime Rates.
Gallup
Per Gallup (February 2020), “Each year since 2017, 15% of U.S. adults have indicated they were victimized by crime in the past year. A subset of that, between 1% and 3%, have reported being the victim of a violent crime.” One percent of Americans were victimized by violent crime in 2016. That tripled to three percent in 2019. 2019 is the first year where violent crime reached three percent, Gallup.
Americans are more likely to perceive crime in the U.S. as having increased over the prior year (78%) than they have been at any point since 1993, Gallup.
Violence in 2021
Preliminary data for 2021 from non-federal sources indicate that violence continues to increase, Violent Crime Increases-2021.
Police Officers Are Leaving
Per data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the country lost 11,009 police officers from March of 2020 to March of 2021. The growth from 4,000 to 11,000 indicates a rapidly growing trend.
It’s not just a matter of the number of police officers leaving, it may be the lack of proactivity of remaining officers that has an impact on growing violence, Big Increase In Police Officers Leaving.
Repeat Offenders Power Crime-Over Two Million Crimes Committed
82% were arrested at least once during the 10 years following release.
Prisoners released in 2008 had a median of nine prior arrests and five prior convictions in their criminal history.
40% of persons released from prison in 2008 were arrested for a violent offense.
An estimated 2.2 million arrests occurred among the approximately 409,300 persons released from prison across 24 states in 2008.
Nearly 7 in 10 state prisoners released across 22 states had an arrest within 10 years that led to a conviction.
About 61% of prisoners released in 2008 returned to prison within 10 years for a parole or probation violation or a new sentence, Recidivism.
Summation
The pandemic and the lifting of COVID restrictions plus the death of George Floyd plus the resulting riots and protests plus declining numbers of police officers per the Bureau of Labor Statistics and issues related to the proactivity of officers plus the issue of repeat offenders added to an increase in violent crime for many American cities and places the discussion of crime in America into a different dimension.
There are those insisting that we have never lived in safer times due to an almost continuous (and considerable) twenty-year plus decline in crime, but that argument has ended since the increases in violence began in 2015 and the dramatic events of 2020-2021.
See More
See more articles on crime and justice at Crime in America.
Most Dangerous Cities/States/Countries at Most Dangerous Cities.
US Crime Rates at Nationwide Crime Rates.
National Offender Recidivism Rates at Offender Recidivism.
An Overview Of Data On Mental Health at Mental Health And Crime.
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