Violent crime is increasing across America

The total number of homicides across major US cities fell during the first half of this year compared to 2021, per a recent survey of law-enforcement agencies… but they’re up 50% when compared to pre-pandemic numbers from 2019. (*Cue the Mad Max/Covid comparisons.)

🔢 By the numbers… The survey covered 70 of America’s largest cities, including all of the top ten by population. And to paint a broad picture, violent crime in the US has risen ~23% over the past three years, with rape being the only category where reported incidents decreased (-5%).

• 4,511 homicides occurred from January through June of this year, up from 3,004 in 2019; aggravated assaults also increased by 36% compared to pre-pandemic.

☝️ One thing to note: This recent survey isn’t considered official federal crime data, that’ll come next month with the FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Report.

🇺🇸📈 Zoom out: Big cities aren’t the only ones who saw murder rates soar during the pandemic – they jumped in rural areas, too. The number of homicides in rural America increased by 25% in 2020, per CDC data, good for the largest such increase since record-keeping began in 1999.