Homicides fell in many U.S. cities last year

But crime report notes increase in other offenses, including vehicle thefts

Homicides declined last year in nearly two dozen U.S. cities, though many communities still continued to face higher levels of deadly violence than they did in 2019, before a spike in killings, according to a new report on crime trends.

The report by the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice also said while numerous cities saw violent crime fall in 2023 from the year before, other offenses increased over the same period, including motor vehicle thefts.

“Overall, crime rates are largely returning to pre-COVID levels as the nation distances itself from the height of the pandemic, but there are notable exceptions,” said the think tank’s report, which was released Thursday.

Communities across the country have seen a welcome decline in the levels of bloodshed they endured in 2020 and 2021, when rates of gun deaths rose to their highest levels in a quarter-century. Experts say there was no single explanation for that increase, though they cited as possible factors the stress of the coronavirus pandemic, which began in 2020, and the rising number of guns nationwide.

Data released by the FBI last fall showed homicides and violent crime overall fell in 2022 from the year before. Many places then saw homicide decline further in 2023.

The homicide decrease across the country is “not as large as the increase was in 2020, but combining 2022 and 2023, what I expect to see is a large, possibly historic decline,” said Jeff Asher, a crime analyst and consultant.

“We’re trending towards 2019 but have not reached those numbers yet,” said Asher, who is part of the Council on Criminal Justice’s working group on crime trends but was not involved in the report.

The report examines data from a relatively small number of places — including the country’s largest cities, such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — and the analysis cautions they “are not necessarily representative of all cities in the United States.” But the declines in many of those places still come as positive news for communities where homicides had been rising only a few years ago.

Police in Philadelphia reported 410 killings last year, down from 499 in 2020, 562 in 2021 and 514 in 2022. Even with last year’s decline, the city still saw more killings than the 353 police reported in both 2018 and 2019.

New York City police say there were 391 murders in 2023, down from the previous year and the first time since 2019 the city saw fewer than 400 killings in one year. Chicago police said they had 617 murders last year, down from 709 in 2022, 804 in 2021 and 778 in 2020.

In Los Angeles, the police reported 327 homicides last year, down from 392 the year before — and, officials said, it was the first time in nearly a decade the city saw more deaths from traffic crashes than homicides.

Still, these experiences were not universal. Memphis had nearly 400 homicides last year, breaking a record set only two years earlier, when the city had nearly 350 homicides.

In Washington, meanwhile, homicides surged in 2023 over the previous year, with 274 killings — up 35% from the year before. The nation’s capital had a homicide rate in 2023 that was higher than nearly all of the nation’s largest cities. Homicides were not the only crime to climb significantly in Washington: Carjackings also soared.

Although murder was declining across the country, the goal should still be reducing it further, Asher said.