Violent crime in major U.S. cities found to fall slightly

Violent crime rates in some major cities declined last year but have yet to recover from a 2020 surge associated with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report released Thursday.

The report, by the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice, examined trends in 35 cities and found that while homicides, gun assaults and reports of domestic violence declined slightly in 2022 compared with the year before, some property crimes have worsened. In some cities, car thefts in particular have spiked, the report found.

Nationwide, crime has been steadily declining for most of the past quarter-century, starting in the early 1990s. While the full picture on crime rates is nuanced, interpretation of the data has often become deeply politicized.

The report from the council, a think tank that focuses on criminal justice issues, examined crime in cities that were selected based on the availability of crime data.

The study found that, on average, the number of murders declined 4% between 2021 and 2022 — a decrease of 242 homicides in 27 cities that reported data — though that rate remained 34% higher than it was in 2019. Still, the report notes, the total number of homicides in those cities was about half as high as it was during the historical peaks, which occurred in 1980 and 1991.

Thirteen cities reported increases in homicides from 2021 to 2022, ranging from Houston, which reported a marginal increase of less than 1%, to Raleigh, N.C., which reported a 48% increase. By contrast, 14 cities either had no change or had reductions in homicides. They include St. Louis, where murder rates were unchanged, and Richmond, Va., which saw a 40% reduction.

The report found that, on average, robberies increased 5.5% in 2022 over 2021, nonresidential burglaries increased 11%, and larcenies increased 8%. However, each of those crime rates remained lower than they were in 2019.

“In no case did we find crime rates returning to pre-pandemic 2019 levels,” said Richard Rosenfeld, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and lead author of the report. “Violent crimes still remain above those levels, and the property crimes, despite the increase, continue to remain below those levels.”

Motor vehicle thefts surged by 59% from 2019 to 2022, and by 21% from 2021 to 2022, the report found. In eight cities, vehicle thefts more than doubled, including in Norfolk, Va.

Insha Rahman, vice president of advocacy and partnerships at the Vera Institute of Justice, a criminal justice research organization, noted that a “dominant narrative” since 2020 has been that the crime surge was driven by a loss of financial support for police because of criminal justice reform efforts.

But police departments across the country have seen their budgets grow, she said.

“Have police departments actually been defunded?” she asked. “The answer is no.”