Washington — Violent and property crimes declined overall in 2023, according to data released Monday by the FBI, although the year was marked by an increase in car thefts.
The FBI’s 2023 Crime Report, which the agency releases annually, uses crime statistics from law enforcement agencies and partners across the country to describe the national crime landscape. In 2023, data was submitted by more than 16,000 agencies.
This year’s report comes just weeks before the presidential election, where crime has become a key campaign issue.
Violent crime down
Violent crime — which includes murder and manslaughter, rape, aggravated assault and robbery — decreased by about 3% between 2022 and 2023 nationally, the report said.
Among the results, murders and manslaughter without negligence saw a decrease of 11.6% compared to the previous year, as well as a decrease of 9.4% in rapes, a decrease of 0.3% in robberies and a decrease of 2.8% in aggravated assaults.
The drop in violent crime rates comes after an increase in violent crime during the Covid-19 pandemic. Violent crimes too decreased in 2022down 1.7%.
In total, more than 1.2 million violent crimes were committed in 2023, according to the report.
Murder rate sees biggest annual drop in 20 years
The decline in the murder rate between 2022 and 2023 represents the “largest decline” in the rate in the past 20 years, an FBI official said.
The homicide rate fell from 6.5 to 5.7 murders per 100,000 people in 2023. The drop comes after the homicide rate climbed to an average of 6.6 per 100,000 people from 2020 to 2022. But the 2023 figures are still slightly higher than the 20-year average.
Property crimes down, car thefts up
Property crimes were also down Overall, with a decrease of 2.4% compared to 2022, this includes burglaries, burglaries and motor vehicle thefts. While burglaries decreased by 7.6% and burglaries (non-violent property thefts) decreased by 4.4%, motor vehicle thefts increased by 12.6%, according to the report.
Motor vehicle theft Motor vehicle thefts also increased substantially in 2022, up nearly 11% from 2021. While that year saw the largest year-over-year increase in motor vehicle theft rates, the report says 2023 marked the highest rate of motor vehicle thefts since 2007. Among the thefts, cars were the most common, with a more than 20% increase in thefts between 2022 and 2023, compared to buses, trucks and other vehicles, the report says.
In 2023, more than 6.4 million property crimes were committed, according to the report.
Campaigning against crime
Crime has been one of the most talked about issues by candidates during their election campaigns, and it has been particularly pronounced among Republicans.
During the presidential debate earlier this month, former President Donald Trump claimed that crime was “through the roof” in the United States. And after moderators pointed out FBI statistics that suggested otherwise, Trump called the agency’s data “fraudulent claims.”
Trump has often criticized the Biden-Harris administration on crime, saying the country is far more dangerous than it was four years ago under his own administration.
On Monday, President Biden touted the FBI’s numbers, noting that while the administration had some of the highest homicide rates ever when he took office, the agency’s new report “confirms once again that Americans are safer than when we took office.”
“None of this happened by accident,” the president said in a statement, referring to public safety and gun control initiatives. “We will not stop now.”
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