After seeing a spike in homicides during the pandemic, the number of violent crimes in the United States has dropped for the second year in a row.
Data released by the FBI reveals the U.S. saw 364 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 2023 – down from 377 per 100,000 the year before. That's a 3% drop. Property crime also decreased roughly 2.4%.
The news comes after the country experienced a record 30% rise in violent crimes in 2020, according to the FBI.
"Are we looking at crime rates at a return to pre-pandemic levels? I think a reasonable person would look at that and say, 'Yes, that's what has happened,'" Brian Griffith, deputy assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
The murder rate saw the largest drop in decades, according to reports, falling from 6.5 to 5.7 murders per 100,000 people.
What's more is the largest cities in the U.S. saw the biggest drops in violent crimes, per the bureau. Communities with at least 1 million residents saw a decrease of nearly 7%, the data reveals.
Violent crime consists of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. More than 1.2 million violent crime offenses were committed in 2023, per the report.
Nationwide, from 2022 to 2023, the estimated volume of violent crime offenses showed the following changes:
• Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter decreased an estimated 11.6%.
• Rape decreased an estimated 9.4%.
• Robbery decreased an estimated 0.3%.
• Aggravated assault decreased an estimated 2.8%.
According to the report, firearm use in connection with robberies in 2023 decreased 5.1%, from 79,774 offenses to 75,690. Similar decreases were observed for robberies involving knives (down 2.4%) or other weapons (down 3.2%). The only weapon category to show an increase from 2022 to 2023 was strong-arm robbery, at 3.2%.
Property crime -- burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft -- also dropped nationwide in 2023, by 2.4%. More than 6.4 million property crimes were committed in 2023. That boils down to 1,916 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 2023 – down from 1,973 per 100,000 the year before.
The only type of property crime to increase last year was motor vehicle theft, which rose a significant 12.6%. Theft involving autos increased more than 20% from 681,964 in 2022 to 819,301 in 2023 -- the highest rate since 2007, per CBS News.
Burglary decreased 7.6% while larceny-theft decreased 4.4%, according to the report. Each burglary method of entry – forcible entry, attempted forcible entry, and unlawful entry – decreased between 4.5% and 7.7% from 2022 to 2023, based on the data.
The FBI also report a nationwide rise in hate crime in 2023. Hate crime incidents increased from 11,634 to 11,862; offenses increased from 13,337 to 13,829; and victims increased from 13,711 to 14,416, according to the report. "Known offenders," meantime, decreased from 10,299 to 9,739.
The FBI's report is based on crime data from more than 16,000 state and local law enforcement agencies, which represents roughly 85% of agencies actively enrolled in the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program.