Latest news with #FBIreport
The Guardian
7 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
FBI report disproves Trump's claim of a Biden-era out-of-control crime wave
When Donald Trump fought for and won the 2024 presidential election, his victory was built partly on the false assertion that Democrats were responsible for an out-of-control crime wave in the US, with murders and rapes at record highs. Figures released by the FBI on Tuesday, however, confirm that the nation was as safe as it ever had been during the final full year of the Biden administration. Every category of crime decreased in frequency, and violent crime in particular dropped to levels not seen since the 1960s, per the report. The bureau's annual Reported Crimes in the Nation Statistics report reflects a 4.5% year-on-year decrease in all violent crime nationally in 2024, with murder and non-negligent manslaughter falling 14.5% from the 2023 figure. Reported rapes were down 5.2% from the year before, while aggravated assaults and robberies declined 3% and 8.9% respectively. The figures belie Trump's oft-repeated fear-mongering during the election campaign that 'soft-on-crime' Democrats had fueled surging crime rates, particularly in major cities under their control. In May 2024, for example, Trump told reporters attending his hush-money trial in Manhattan that New York prosecutors were fixated on his prosecution while 'people are being mugged and killed outside … [I've] never seen anything like it in my life'. Yet the FBI report shows that murders in cities with more than 1 million residents declined by 19.1%, the highest percentage of any category of crime, while rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults showed drops of between 1% and 9.8%. 'The nation's murder rate for 2024 was down 26% from 2020's figure and roughly even, slightly lower actually, relative to where it stood pre-pandemic,' crime analyst Jeff Asher said on his Substack channel Jeff-alytics. 'The nation's reported violent and property crime rates stood at the lowest levels since the 1960s in 2024.' Asher injected a note of caution by pointing out that the FBI had added the prefix 'reported' to the publication's former title Crimes in the Nation to reflect the fact that the figures were compiled by voluntary submissions from more than 16,000 state, county, city, university and college, and tribal law enforcement agencies. 'Not every crime is reported to law enforcement and not every agency reports crime to the FBI every year,' he said. But, he added: 'The 2024 data adds confidence that 2025 will feature the lowest murder rate ever recorded. The odds have gone from 'plausible' to 'more likely than not'.' Overall, the FBI recorded more than 14m criminal offenses nationally in 2024. Reported data, the bureau said, showed that a violent crime occurred, on average, every 25.9 seconds, with a murder every 31.1 minutes and a rape every 4.1 minutes. The report comprises five sections, including an analysis of the frequency of hate crimes, and the number of assaults or killings of law enforcement officers. In the former category, data covering 95.1% of the US population showed 11,679 criminal incidents, and 13,683 related offenses motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender or gender identity, small drops from the respective 2023 figures of 11,862 and 13,829. The Arab American Institute cast doubt on the accuracy of the reporting in a statement. 'Although some bias categories experienced slight declines from last year's record highs, these numbers should be interpreted cautiously,' Maya Berry, the group's executive director, said. 'From the chronic underreporting problem to discrepancies in hate crime reporting between communities, to the deeply troubling moves to politicize hate crime data collection, we must understand this data serves as not only a stark reminder of the challenges we face, but a call to action. It underscores the urgent need for civil rights protections that are robust, inclusive, and enforced.' A dark spot on the report was data showing that 64 law enforcement officers had been killed 'feloniously' during 2024 in the line of duty, with firearms used in 46 of the deaths. Additionally, 43 more officers died in accidents over the year, most in vehicle-related incidents. The number of law enforcement personnel who reported they had been assaulted in 2024 rose to 85,730, a 10-year high. The 2025 figure to be published next year is expected to rise significantly to reflect homeland security department (DHS) claims that assaults on immigration and customs enforcement agency (Ice) officers have risen 830% since Trump's second term began in January. Prosecutors, however, have dropped or refused to pursue charges against numerous individuals citing false and misleading reports by immigration officers and video footage showing those accused of assaults were actually the victims.
Al Jazeera
7 days ago
- Al Jazeera
US crime rates dropped in 2024, new FBI report shows
A new report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has found that crime in the United States decreased in 2024, continuing a trend of improved public safety after a spike in murders during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report, released on Tuesday, estimates that 1,221,345 incidents of violent crime – including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault offences – took place in the US last year, down by 4.5 percent from 2023. Intentional homicides decreased by 14.9 percent. But at a rate of 5 for every 100,000 people, the murder rate in the US remains significantly higher than throughout most of the world. For example, according to United Nations data, the murder rate in Japan in 2023 was 0.23 per 100,000 people. In Oman, the rate was 0.14. In Norway, it was 0.72. And in the US's northern neighbour, Canada, the rate was 1.98. Nonetheless, the 2024 murder rate in the US represents a nine-year low and a major decline from a recent peak of 6.7 per 100,000 in 2020, the first year of the pandemic. Rape offences also went down by 5.2 percent in 2024, the report said, while reports of hate crimes decreased by 1.5 percent. Data submitted to the FBI shows a violent crime occurred on average every 26 seconds in 2024 and law enforcement made more than 419,000 violent crime arrests. Read more in the FBI's 'Reported Crimes in the Nation, 2024' summary: — FBI (@FBI) August 5, 2025 Overall, a violent crime occurred in the US every 26 seconds, a murder every 31 minutes and a rape offence every four minutes. Property crime also decreased in 2024, according to the FBI report. The bureau recorded 5,986,400 such offences, an 8.1 percent decrease from 2023. The data is based on the reporting of thousands of law enforcement agencies that cover 95.6 percent of US residents, the FBI said. According to the report, 64 police officers were criminally killed last year, and 43 others died in accidents. More than 85,700 officers were assaulted, a slight uptick from 2023 and a 10-year high. Gun violence has been a leading driver of crime in the US. According to the database Gun Violence Archives, there have been 8,878 gun-related deaths and 261 mass shootings so far in 2025. Last week, an attacker armed with a rifle killed four people, including a police officer, near the headquarters of the National Football League (NFL) in New York City. Last year, US President Donald Trump made public safety a major theme in his election campaign, portraying his Democratic rivals as weak on crime and anti-police. Although the initial uptick in crime rates happened during the last year of Trump's first term, the Republican leader repeatedly promised to restore 'law and order'. It is largely the states and local authorities that oversee policing. On Tuesday, Trump renewed his criticism of local policing and prosecution in Washington, DC, threatening to have federal authorities take over the US capital city. He claimed that teenage 'thugs' are randomly attacking people in the capital city and called for any youth suspects to be prosecuted and tried as adults. 'Washington, DC, must be safe, clean, and beautiful for all Americans and, importantly, for the World to see,' Trump wrote in a social media post. 'If DC doesn't get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they're not going to get away with it anymore.' However, official data shows that crime has been on a downward trend in Washington, DC, contradicting Trump's claim that the capital 'is totally out of control'. For example, violent crime went down by 35 percent in 2024 compared with the previous year, and homicide dropped by 32 percent. Tuesday's data does not reflect the state of public safety under Trump, who returned to the White House in January this year.
The Independent
06-08-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
FBI's annual crime report contradicts statements made by Trump
The FBI 's annual crime report indicates a 4.5 percent decrease in violent crime across the U.S. in 2024. This report contradicts statements made by Donald Trump, who has claimed that crime in the U.S. is 'out of control' and on the rise. Specific reductions highlighted in the FBI report include a 14.9 percent drop in murder and non-negligent manslaughter, 5.2 percent in rape, and 8.9 percent in robbery. Donald Trump has repeatedly asserted that violence is rampant, citing examples such as being unable to walk safely for a loaf of bread and claiming crime in Washington, D.C. is 'totally out of control.' Contrary to Trump's assertions about the capital, Washington, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department reported a 35 percent decrease in violent crime in 2024 compared to the previous year.
