Violent crime dropped in the first three months of 2024 compared with the year-earlier period, according to statistics released by the FBI on June 10.
Property crime reports also fell by about 15 percent, the figures show.
“When I became Attorney General over three years ago, we knew that grappling with the violent crime that surged early in the pandemic would be one of the greatest challenges we would face at the Justice Department,” he added.
“That is why we have poured every available resource into working with our law enforcement and community partners to drive down violent crime.”
The attorney general added that the Department of Justice and FBI will “continue to deploy our technological and prosecutorial resources to identify and prosecute the principal drivers” of shootings.
“We will continue to invest in the essential programs that allow police departments to hire more officers. We will continue to build the public trust essential for public safety,” he said.
“And we will continue to support the evidence-based community violence intervention initiatives that save lives.”
The report comes as overall violent crime in the U.S. dropped in late 2023, according to FBI data released in April.
Murders dropped 13 percent in the last three months last year, compared with the year-earlier period, as overall violent crime was down about 6 percent. Final, detailed data for all of 2023 is expected to be released in the fall.
Decrease Is Relative
The recent declines come after major spikes in violent crime in 2020, which remained constant in 2021. In 2020, homicides spiked by 29 percent, according to the FBI. That was the largest one-year jump since the bureau started keeping records.The rise defied easy explanation, although analysts said possible contributors included the COVID-19 pandemic, mass shootings, worries about the economy, and stress. Some commentators have cited as well the mass protests and riots in the United States during the summer of 2020 and the movement to defund the police.
Homicides and non-negligent manslaughters rose to 21,570, an increase of 4,901 over 2019’s numbers, the 2020 data showed. It was the highest estimated total since the early 1990s amid the crack epidemic and gang-related conflicts in many major U.S. cities, officials said.
In 2021, violent crime appeared to stay steady the following year, although a record-collecting overhaul at the FBI meant many big cities weren’t included in the report that year.
FBI data showed violent crime across the U.S. decreased in 2022, getting closer to pre-pandemic levels, although property crimes rose that year.
That’s up from 54 percent in 2021, according to Gallup. A previous high of 60 percent was recorded in the years 2000, 2010, and 2016.
