FBI: U.S. murders increased sharply in 2015
A large percent occurred in major cities, report says.
The number of murders in the United States increased sharply in 2015, with significant rises in several large cities, according to an annual report released Monday by the FBI.
The 10.8 percent increase in the rate of murders from 2014 to 2015 represented the largest year-to-year jump in at least 20 years, according to the FBI data, but the murder rate remained about half the level from the 1990s, when violent crime reached a modern peak.
Violent crime in the U.S. increased nearly 4 percent in 2015, according to the report.
A large percentage of the murders occurred in major cities, including Baltimore, Chicago and Washington, that have been plagued by gun violence.
Overall, violent crime in the United States rose 3.9 percent in 2015, but property crimes fell 2.6 percent, according to the FBI data.
In 2015, Chicago reported 478 murders, up from 411 in 2014. Los Angeles had 282 murders compared with 262 in 2014. New York reported 352 murders in 2015, about 20 more than the year before.
The re por t f ound t hat there were about 1.2 million violent crimes in 2015, up from 1,153,022 in 2014.
Despite the increase, 2015 had the third-lowest number of violent crimes during the last 15 years, the data show.
In 1996, a year in which cities across the nation were in the midst of a wave of vio- lent crime, fueled partly by the crack cocaine epidemic, there were about 1.7 million violent crimes, data show.
Police officials and criminologists say there is no single reason for the rise in homicides in large cities, but point to disputes over the growing heroin trade.
Ja mes C o mey, t h e F BI director, has said that the increase in violence in some urban centers is the result of police officers being less aggressive in confronting p o t e n t i a l c r i mi n a l i t y a s d e p a r t ment s h ave b e e n subjected to intense scrutiny over the past two years after fatal police shootings of African-Americans.