A look at violent crime across America

Murders across the US rose 4% last year after increasing nearly 30% in 2020, per the FBI’s annual Crime in the Nation Report published yesterday.

🔢 By the numbers… The murder rate in America last year was estimated at around 7 in every 100,000 Americans. Which is higher than before the pandemic (5 in 100,000), but lower than the record-high levels in the early ‘90s (10 in 100,000).

• Overall, violent crime decreased by 1% year-over-year to 1,313,200 incidents – though that was largely driven by a 9% decline in robberies, the FBI data show.

✋ Yes, but… The FBI transitioned to a new data collection system starting last year – and ~40% of US police jurisdictions have yet to get onboard, including major ones like the NYPD and LAPD.

• Law-enforcement agencies covering just 65% of the US population submitted data to the FBI in 2021, down from ~95% in previous years.
• The agency filled that data gap by using estimates, but officials and experts alike cautioned against placing too much emphasis on federal numbers from 2021 due to wide margins of error.

😬 But, but, but: The Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan criminal-justice think tank, said the FBI estimates for last year are similar to a 5% rise in murders it found across 27 major US cities.