Crime has been recorded in the United States since its founding and has fluctuated significantly over time. Most available data underestimate crime before the 1930s (due to incomplete datasets and other factors), giving the false impression that crime was low in the early 1900s and had a sharp rise after. Instead, violent crime during the colonial period was likely three times higher than the highest modern rates in the data currently available, and crime had been on the decline since colonial times. Within the better data for crime reporting and recording available starting in the 1930s, crime reached its broad, bulging modern peak between the 1970s and early 1990s. After 1992, crime rates have generally trended downwards each year, with the exceptions of a slight increase in property crimes in 2001 and increases in violent crimes in 2005–2006, 2014–2016 and 2020–2021. Final FBI estimates for 2025 showed that violent crime offenses fell 9.3% from 2024, including an 18.1% decline in murder and nonnegligent manslaughter.
As the Marshall Project notes, "By 2020, almost every law enforcement agency was included in the FBI's database." But the new system, which went into effect in 2021, is missing a lot of data. In 2022, 32% of police departments stopped reporting crime data, and another 24% of departments only reported crime data for some months during the year. This results in the omitted data not being counted, leading to an artificially lower crime rate. Federal data for 2020–2021 and limited data from select U.S. cities collected by the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice showed significantly elevated rates of homicide and motor vehicle theft in 2020–2022. Although both overall crime rates and the homicide rate have fallen far below the peak of crime seen in the United States during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the homicide rate in the U.S. is high relative to other "high income"/developed nations, with eight major U.S. cities ranked among the 50 cities with the highest homicide rate in the world in 2022. The aggregate cost of crime in the United States is significant, with an estimated value of $4.9 trillion reported in 2021. Data from , from government and private sector sources show that the murder rate has dropped, as much as 12% in as many as 90 cities across the United States. The drop in homicide rates is not uniform across the country however, with some cities such as Memphis, TN, showing an uptick in murder rates.
The two major sources of national crime data are the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Uniform Crime Reports (which indexes eight types of offenses recorded by law enforcement) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics's National Crime Victimization Surveys (which may cover offenses not reported to police). In addition to the primary Uniform Crime Report known as Crime in the United States, the FBI publishes annual reports on the status of law enforcement in the United States. The report's definitions of specific crimes are considered standard by many American law enforcement agencies. According to the FBI, index crime in the United States includes violent crime and property crime. Violent crime consists of five criminal offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and gang violence; property crime consists of burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson.
The basic aspect of a crime considers the offender, the victim, type of crime, severity and level, and location. These are the basic questions asked by law enforcement when first investigating any situation. This information is formatted into a government record by a police arrest report, also known as an incident report. These forms lay out all the information needed to put the crime in the system and it provides a strong outline for further law enforcement agents to review. Society has a strong misconception about crime rates due to media aspects heightening their fear factor. The system's crime data fluctuates by crime depending on certain influencing social factors such as economics, the dark figure of crime, population, and geography.
Crime over time
Despite accusations of a "crime crisis" of soaring violent crime under President Joe Biden, FBI data indicated the violent crime rate had declined significantly during the president's first two years in office, after a spike in 2020 during the COVID pandemic. By 2022, the violent crime rate was near a 50-year low, and preliminary data released in early 2024 indicated continuing declines in 2023. The FBI estimated that the violent crime rate fell 9.7% in 2025, the largest year-to-year decrease since national estimates began in 1936. The murder and nonnegligent manslaughter rate was 4.1 per 100,000 inhabitants, tying 1955 and 1956 for the lowest rate in the national estimate series.
In the early 1980s, a study (using data from the years 1978 to 1982) estimated that the cumulative lifetime risk of becoming a homicide victim (ie. the risk of dying due to homicide throughout one's life, rather than the commonly cited statistics of annual homicide risk) was 1 in 133. However, the study found considerable differences by race and gender, with the risks being 1 in 21 for black males, 1 in 104 for black females, 1 in 131 for white males, and 1 in 369 for white females. Since then, this risk has been decreasing, it was 1 in 240 in 1997, and 1 in 287 in 2009.
After World War II, crime rates increased in the United States, peaking from the 1970s to the early-1990s. Violent crime nearly quadrupled between 1960 and its peak in 1991. Property crime more than doubled over the same period. Since the 1990s, however, contrary to common misconception, crime in the United States has declined steadily, and has significantly declined by the late 1990s and also in the early 2000s. Not only did crime decrease overall nationally in the United States in the 1990s but also in major cities during that decade and continuing into the following decades. Several theories have been proposed to explain this decline: The lead–crime hypothesis suggests the removal of lead from gasoline and paint reduced crime rates. A 2022 meta-analysis of 24 studies found that there is substantial evidence linking lead exposure to a heightened risk of criminal behavior, particularly violent crimes. This aligns with earlier research suggesting lead exposure may foster impulsive and aggressive tendencies, potential precursors to violent offenses. While a correlation between declining lead pollution and declining criminality is supported by research, it is likely not a significant factor in reduced crime rates, and the link is generally overstated in lead-crime literature. The number of police officers hired and employed to various police forces increased considerably in the 1990s. On September 16, 1994, President Bill Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act into law. Under the act, over $30 billion in federal aid was spent over a six-year period to improve state and local law enforcement, prisons and crime prevention programs. Proponents of the law, including the President, touted it as a lead contributor to the sharp drop in crime which occurred throughout the 1990s, while critics have dismissed it as an unprecedented federal boondoggle. The rate of incarceration has significantly increased since the mid-1970s. Starting in the mid-1980s, crack cocaine use grew rapidly before declining again a decade later. Some authors have suggested a link between violent crimes and crack use. Legalized abortion following Roe v. Wade in 1973 reduced the number of children born to mothers in difficult circumstances, and a difficult childhood makes children more likely to become criminals. The changing demographics of an aging population has been cited for the drop in overall crime. Rising income The introduction of the data-driven policing practice CompStat (management system created in 1994) is claimed to have significantly reduced crimes in cities that adopted it. The quality and extent of use of security technology both increased around the time of the crime decline, after which the rate of car theft declined; this may have caused rates of other crimes to decline as well. Increased rates of immigration to the United States A few of these factors are superimposed against the homicide rate chart under the "Homicide" heading of the International comparison section.
Select crimes reported by year This table looks at data nationally and is from the FBI crime data explorer. It can be accessed either via downloadable CSV files or directly through the interface itself. CrimeViolentProperty and nonviolent crimesYearHomicideRapeAggravated AssaultArsonMotor vehicle theftShoplifting202511,721101,648672,89227,628569,384952,303202416,924125,354842,29036,318846,2331,116,700202319,677131,033873,77337,7441,055,283994,948202221,846137,689886,54639,969925,270765,242202117,924113,008662,20230,239620,307602,085202017,985129,857884,60945,972786,661521,507201916,696142,341791,34836,182702,747507,162201816,853144,049797,28239,361742,463415,713201717,466135,941795,17642,992758,273390,950201617,123126,395789,15745,729756,353165,609201515,643119,604749,04440,827698,387148,340201413,966108,388718,85746,195674,711128,784201314,11496,316713,48047,204690,039109,124201214,82883,439752,25855,336715,90098,200201114,55282,607742,22454,546708,97576,943201014,57684,190769,51055,986729,03568,702200915,16684,304793,91559,860783,76364,028200816,17183,758825,11265,789944,53558,000200716,87884,735845,37068,0911,081,06547,549200616,93187,378849,36872,9691,175,35436,841200516,17987,308824,56068,5081,198,51337,664200415,60788,245819,49369,3001,200,27033,219200315,81485,763814,83572,8091,214,29821,081200215,61787,334851,01577,1481,203,46727,054200115,31682,766857,35679,0401,176,37918,588200014,72881,213858,79769,4661,104,06013,682199914,36079,042846,55978,4951,084,6375,707199815,76383,033909,69880,1501,172,8032,521199716,93085,210941,05087,2601,279,5861,755199617,97882,296915,41791,6971,278,4461,388199520,36587,5501,016,57996,5361,278,446439
According to a mid‑year report from the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ), which tracks crime trends in a sample of large American cities, the first half of 2026 saw a continuation of the broad decline in crime that began in previous years. Compared with the same period in 2025, homicide fell by 18 percent, robbery by 17 percent, and motor vehicle theft by 20 percent. Carjacking experienced the steepest drop among all offenses measured, plunging 47 percent. At the same time, however, not all categories followed the downward trajectory. Drug‑related offenses rose by 12 percent, domestic violence increased by 8 percent, and reported sexual assaults edged up by 3 percent over the six‑month window.
Crime rate in select cities by year
New York City
This table shows the number of select crimes in New York City, New York by year. Data from the FBI Crime Data Explorer can be found in downloaded CSV files. Table source: YearViolentNon-violent/propertyHomicideRapeArson20243821,74886820233911,45591120224381,6173420214881,491020204681,427020193191,755020182951,794020172921,449020163351,438020153521,438020143331,352020133351,378020124191,445020115151,420020105361,373020094711,205020085231,299020074961,351020065961,525020055391,858 020045701,905020035972,070020025872,144020016491,981020006732,068019996441,702019986332,046019977702,157019969832,332019951,1772,3742,30719941,5612,6664,992
Los Angeles This table lists the number of select crimes reported in the city of Los Angeles, California by year. The data shown comes from the Los Angeles Police Department and is found from the FBI Crime Data Explorer's downloaded CSV files. Table source: