A growing percentage of Americans say reducing crime should be a top priority for the president and Congress this year. Roughly six in 10 U.S. adults (58%) now hold that view, up from 47% at the beginning of President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021.
We conducted this analysis to learn more about crime patterns in the United States and how those patterns have changed over time.
This analysis relies on FBI-published statistics accessed through Crime Data Explorer and Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) statistics accessed through the National Crime Victimization Survey data analysis tool.
To measure public attitudes toward crime in the United States, we relied on survey data from the Pew Research Center and Gallup.
More information about each data source, including research methodology, can be found by following the links in the text of this analysis.
With the issue likely to be an issue in this year’s presidential election, here’s what we know about crime in the United States, based on the latest data available from the federal government and other sources. .
How many crimes occur in America?
It’s hard to say for sure. His two main sources of government crime statistics, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), paint an incomplete picture.
The FBI annually releases data on crimes reported to law enforcement, but not on crimes that go unreported. Historically, the FBI has released statistics only about a few specific violent and property crimes, and less about other types of crimes, such as drug crimes. Additionally, while the FBI’s data is based on information from thousands of federal, state, county, city and other police departments, not all law enforcement agencies participate each year. In 2022, the most recent full year for which statistics are available, the FBI received data from 83% of participating agencies.
BJS tracks crime by conducting a large annual survey of Americans ages 12 and older, asking them whether they have been the victim of a specific type of crime in the past six months. One advantage of this approach is that it captures both reported and unreported crimes. However, the BJS study has its own limitations. Like the FBI, it primarily focuses on a small number of violent and property crimes. Additionally, BJS data is based on postmortem interviews with crime victims, so it cannot provide information about homicide, a crime type that has received particular attention.
All these caveats aside, if you look at the FBI and BJS statistics side by side; do Researchers can get a better picture of violent crime and property crime rates in the United States and how they have changed over time. Additionally, the FBI is transitioning to a new data collection system known as the National Incident-Based Reporting System, which will eventually provide national information on a larger set of crimes, including when and where the crimes occurred. You will be provided with detailed information. If applicable, the type of weapon involved.
What are the most and least common types of crimes?
Property crimes are much more common than violent crimes in the United States. In 2022, he said, the FBI reported that property crimes totaled 1,954.4 per 100,000 people, while violent crimes totaled 380.7 per 100,000 people.
The most common form of property crime in 2022 was theft/larceny, followed by auto theft and burglary. Among violent crimes, aggravated assault was the most common, followed by robbery, rape, and murder/manslaughter.
Although BJS tracks a slightly different set of crimes than the FBI, the overall pattern is the same: the most common form of property crime in 2022 is theft, and the most common form of violent crime is It turned out to be an assault.
How has the crime rate in the United States changed over time?
Both FBI and BJS data show violent crime and property crime rates in the United States have declined dramatically since the early 1990s, when crime spiked across much of the country.
According to FBI data, violent crime rates decreased by 49% between 1993 and 2022, with rates for robbery (-74%), aggravated assault (-39%), and murder/manslaughter (-34%) decreasing. It has decreased significantly. Because the FBI revised its definition of the crime in 2013, it is not possible to calculate changes in rape rates over this period.
FBI data also shows that between 1993 and 2022, the U.S. property crime rate decreased by 59%, with incidences of robbery (-75%), burglary/theft (-54%), and motor vehicle theft (-53%) This shows that the rate has decreased significantly. ).
Using BJS statistics, the decline in violent crime and property crime rates is even steeper than that captured by FBI data. According to BJS, violent crime and property crime rates in the United States each decreased by 71% between 1993 and 2022.
Crime rates have been declining rapidly over time, but the decline has not necessarily been steady.Something worth noting To increase I have been involved in certain types of crimes over the years, including recently.
For example, in 2020, the U.S. homicide rate recorded the largest single-year increase on record, and by 2022 remained significantly higher than before the coronavirus pandemic. However, preliminary data for 2023 suggests that the homicide rate decreased significantly last year.
How do Americans perceive their country’s crimes?
Americans tend to believe that crime is increasing, even when official data shows a decline.
In 23 of the 27 Gallup polls conducted since 1993, at least 60% of U.S. adults reported committing less crimes than the previous year, even though crime rates have trended downward for most of that period. answered that it is increasing.
Although it is common knowledge that crime is increasing on a national level, fewer Americans believe that crime is increasing in their own communities. In Gallup crime surveys since the 1990s, Americans were far less likely to say crime was increasing. in their area than say the same about crime nationwide.
Public attitudes toward crime vary widely depending on Americans’ political affiliation, race, ethnicity, and other factors. For example, a recent Pew Research Center study found that Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are more likely than Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters to say that reducing crime should be a top priority for the president and Congress this year. much higher (68% vs. 47%). investigation.
How does crime in the United States vary by demographic characteristics?
Some groups of Americans are more likely to be victims of crime than others. For example, in the 2022 BJS survey, younger people and lower-income people were much more likely to report being victims of violent crime than older people and higher-income people.
There were no significant differences in violent crime victimization rates between male and female respondents or among respondents who identified as white, black, or Hispanic. However, victimization rates for Asian Americans (a category that includes Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders) were significantly lower than for other racial and ethnic groups.
The same BJS survey asked victims about demographic characteristics. criminal in the events they experienced.
By 2022, men, young adults, and black people will be significantly more likely to be identified as violent offenders than their respective percentages of the U.S. population. For example, men accounted for 79% of the offenders recognized in violent incidents, while men accounted for 49% of the country’s population aged 12 and over in the same year. Black Americans account for 25% of recognized violent offenders, nearly twice the proportion of the population aged 12 and older (12%).
However, as with all research, there are several potential sources of error, including the possibility that crime victims’ perceptions of offenders are incorrect.
How does crime in the United States vary geographically?
There are significant geographic differences in the incidence of violent and property crimes.
For example, in 2022, New Mexico and Alaska had more than 700 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. By comparison, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine have fewer than 200 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the FBI.
The FBI notes that a variety of factors can influence an area’s crime rate, including population density and economic conditions.
What percentage of crimes are reported to the police? What percentage are solved?
Most violent and property crimes in the United States are not reported to police, and most crimes that are reported to police are teeth The reported issue has not been resolved.
In its annual survey, BJS asks crime victims whether they reported the crime to police. It found that in 2022, only 41.5% of violent crimes and 31.8% of property crimes were reported to authorities. The BJS points out that there are many reasons why crimes are not reported, including fear of retaliation or “converting the offender to a corner” and that police are “unwilling or unable to do anything to help.” This includes feelings such as, or the belief that a crime is a crime. “It’s either a personal issue or something too trivial to report.”
Most of the crimes teeth Meanwhile, cases reported to police go unsolved, at least based on an FBI measure known as clearance rate. This is the annual count of cases that are closed, or “acquitted,” due to the suspect’s arrest, indictment, or referral to prosecutors, or due to “exceptional” circumstances such as the suspect’s death or the victim’s refusal to cooperate with the investigation. It is a percentage. Prosecution. In 2022, police nationwide arrested 36.7% of reported violent crimes and 12.1% of recognized property crimes.
Which crime is most likely to be reported to the police? Which crime is most likely to be solved?
In 2022, 8 in 10 motor vehicle thefts (80.9%) were reported to police, making it the most reported property crime tracked by BJS. Reports of burglary and trespassing to the police were much lower (44.9% and 41.2%, respectively), while personal theft/theft and other types of theft accounted for only about a quarter.
Among violent crimes other than homicides not tracked by BJS, robbery was the most likely to be reported to law enforcement in 2022 (64.0%). This was followed by aggravated assault (49.9%), simple assault (36.8%), and rape/sexual assault (21.4%).
list of crimes cleared The list of crimes reported by police in 2022 appears to be different. According to the FBI, law enforcement officers are generally much more likely to solve violent crimes than property crimes.
The most frequently solved violent crimes tend to be murders. Police will clear approximately half (52.3%) of murders and manslaughter cases in 2022. Clearance rates were low for aggravated assault (41.4%), rape (26.1%), and robbery (23.2%).
When it comes to property crimes, in 2022, law enforcement arrested 13.0% of thefts, 12.4% of thefts/thefts, and 9.3% of motor vehicle thefts.
Are police solving more or fewer crimes than before?
National clearance rates for both violent crimes and property crimes are at their lowest levels since at least 1993, according to FBI data.
Police will arrest just over a third (36.7%) of violent crimes in 2022, down from almost half (48.1%) in 2013. During the same period, there was a decline in each of the four types. Violent crimes tracked by the FBI:
- The number of murders and negligent homicides cleared by police in 2022 was 52.3%, down from 64.1% in 2013.
- The percentage of arrests for aggravated assault was 41.4%, down from 57.7%.
- The clearance rate for rape cases was 26.1%, down from 40.6%.
- The clearance rate for robberies was 23.2%, down from 29.4%.
This pattern is less pronounced for property crimes. Overall, law enforcement’s arrest rate for property crimes in 2022 was 12.1%, down from 19.7% in 2013. There was no significant change in the arrest rate for robbery, but the arrest rate for theft/larceny decreased (from 22.4% in 2013 to 12.4% in 2022). (2013), motor vehicle theft (from 14.2% to 9.3%).
Note: This is an update of a post originally published on November 20, 2020.
