Homicides and most other violent crimes continue to decline in U. S. cities. They remain at the highest levels before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new mid-year report released Thursday by the Criminal Justice Council.
“The decline we are seeing in major crime categories is encouraging, but our country should not be wary of the rates of violence that continue to claim thousands of lives a year,” said test co-author Richard Rosenfeld, professor emeritus at the University of Missouri. -St. Louis, in a press release.
At the same time, motor vehicle thefts continue to rise, according to the tank, which has many members in the crosshairs of corrupt justice policy.
The report analyzes crime rates per month for 10 violent, active and drug-related crimes in 37 cities, aggregating some of the largest in the country, but not all cities provided crime information.
This is the latest attempt by researchers to paint a national picture of crime trends at a time when the United States has reliable federal knowledge on the subject and public protection is a priority for many Americans.
To the knowledge of 30 cities, homicides decreased 9% in the first part of 2023 compared to the same time last year, according to the report.
Twenty of the towns reported a decrease in homicides, adding Los Angeles; Chicago; Phoenix; Philadelphia Cream; Austin, Texas; Jacksonville, Florida; and Denver, among others. Ten locations saw increases, followed by New York, Seattle and Washington.
Homicides began to rise in 2020 and peaked in 2021. While grades should fall again, homicides remained 24% higher in the first part of 2023 than in the first part of 2019, according to the report.
A host of other violent crime categories fell by single digits in the first six months of the year, compared to the same time last year, according to the report. But the researchers presented the knowledge cautiously, as a variable number of peoples contributed knowledge in category.
Two for crimes greater than one digit during the same period.
Motor vehicle thefts began piling up at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and have continued to rise.
In the early part of the year, motor vehicle thefts increased about 34 percent compared to the same time in 2022, according to data from 32 cities, according to the report. That’s only about 24,000 more vehicles stolen.
Of those cities, 23 reported increases and seven saw increases of one hundred percent or more: Rochester, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Chicago, Memphis, Washington and Durham.
Motor vehicle thefts increased 104% in the first part of 2019, according to the report.
The Criminal Justice Council’s report aims to fill the gap in up-to-date and representative national knowledge about crime in the United States.
The FBI has collected voluntary knowledge from local law enforcement for its national crime reports. But in 2021, the FBI switched to a new reporting system and only about 65% of agencies sent knowledge.
The FBI expects participation to increase in the long term as more agencies join the system.
The 37 towns included in the report are: Albuquerque, New Mexico; Arlington, Texas; Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Boston; Buffalo, New York; Chandler, Arizona; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Chicago; Cincinnati; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Denver; Narrow; Durham, North Carolina; Jacksonville, Florida; Lincoln, Nebraska; Petit Rocher, Arkansas; Los Angeles; Memphis, Tennessee; Minneapolis; Nashville-Davidson, Tennessee; New York; Norfolk, Virginia; Omaha, Nebraska; Philadelphia Cream; Phoenix; Pittsburgh; Raleigh, North Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; Rochester, New York; San Francisco; Seattle; St. Louis; St. Paul, Minnesota; St. Petersburg, Florida; Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Washington.