Crime rates, particularly for violent crimes, dropped across the U.S. last year, according to newly released statistics from the FBI.
The findings, based on reported data from 2023, showed murder and non-negligent manslaughter decreased 11.6% from the year prior, marking the largest decline in two decades. That's also almost double the drop from 2021 to 2022, which was 6.1%.
Rapes also decreased significantly with an estimated 9.4% decline, and aggravated assaults were down 2.8% last year. Robbery also decreased nationally by 0.3%, the FBI said.
Overall, national violent crime decreased 3% from 2022 to 2023, and property crime rates dropped 2.4%, the annual report showed.
A 7.6% decline in burglary and a 4.4% drop in larceny rates contributed to the decrease in property crime. However, there was also a 12.6% rise in motor vehicle theft, which is the highest rate since 2007. It followed last year's report marking the largest year-to-year increase for the category.
More than 16,000 law enforcement agencies covering 94.3% of the nation's population — including departments in major cities like New York and Los Angeles — submitted data for the report.
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It comes as the U.S. is weeks away from its presidential election, in which both main party candidates have made crime policy key parts of their campaigns.
On one hand, Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris has leaned into her former role of attorney general as proof she's tackled crime and criminals, likening Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to another criminal that she'll take down.
Though she hasn't spoken at length of her criminal justice policies, in her time as a senator, she co-wrote the Justice in Policing Act, a proposal to reform policing in America in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers. She also supported decriminalization of marijuana.
As Vice President, Harris oversaw the newly created Office of Gun Violence Prevention, where she called for all states to put in place red flag laws and also announced new federal rules for increased rules on background checks for guns.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump claims crime rates have risen "through the roof" under President Biden and Vice President Harris and has referred to the FBI as "defrauding statements" in cases that its data shows otherwise.
He's recently taken to citing a separate report from the federal government which shows the number of people victimized by crimes has slightly increased under the Biden administration. That report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics in the Department of Justice found there was less than a 1% increase in the number of victims in 2023 and that the rate was about the same as when Trump was in office in 2019. It also backs up the claim that crime has overall been on a downward trend since the 1990s.
Despite these numbers, Trump insists crime is at an all-time high and that he is the only candidate capable of fixing it. The former president has called for more aggressive policing, less government oversight of police and increased militarization of police. He also wants to expand the use of the death penalty and has promised to free all Jan. 6 defendants on his first day in office.
He also has taken aim at Harris, calling her soft on crime and claiming she wants to defund the police.
Trump did not release an official statement in response to the FBI's report, but during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania later Monday, the former president talked about how ABC News' David Muir in moderating Trump's debate against Harris refuted his claim that crime rates were rising.
To the rally crowd, Trump said, "Anybody that thinks crime is going down is a serious brain problem. And then it got announced the following day that Trump was right, that crime was up 45%." It's unclear where that statistic is from.
In her statement, Harris again touted her former prosecutorial roles and mentioned the spike in violent crime rates from before she and the president took office in 2020 as proof that the work they "immediately" did then has led to the decline in rates now and that the "great progress" wouldn't be stopping.
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"Americans are safer now than when we took office," her statement read. "Our progress is continuing this year and builds on substantial decreases during the previous years of our administration... I am committed to continuing our work to support local law enforcement, invest in proven crime prevention and community violence intervention and address gun violence with commonsense gun safety laws."
President Biden also referred to the efforts he and Harris took on in 2020 as reason for the decline, particularly the American Rescue Plan's investment into public safety and executive actions on guns.
"None of this happened by accident," the president said before listing off his administration's accomplishments. "We're not stopping now. The only way to continue this progress is by investing in what works. That’s why I will continue to urge Congress to fund 100,000 additional police officers and a strong ATF, invest in community violence intervention programs and make commonsense gun safety reforms, including a ban on assault weapons."
In an interview with Scripps News, Stefanie Feldman — the director of the White House's Office of Gun Violence Prevention, established by President Biden and overseen by Harris — acknowledged the argument that a drop in crime since the pandemic high could, in part, be due to life returning to normal. But she said that return was fostered by the administration's efforts, which in turn contributed to the policies that helped decrease violent crimes, like ensuring law enforcement agencies didn't lose funding during the pandemic.
"If you couple that progress with the work President Biden has been doing with Vice President Harris to stop the flow of guns into our communities, that's how you get to the big numbers like the numbers that the FBI is releasing today," Feldman said.
Feldman also spoke on claims that since the FBI report relies on reported data, doesn't paint a full picture of the country's crime. She said that although the FBI report does provide a nationwide look at the country's crime rates, the administration agrees that officials need to "look under every rock to find what additional action we can take."
"President Biden and Vice President Harris will be the first to say that there's so much more we need to do," Feldman told Scripps News. "What the FBI data shows is that the comprehensive strategy of funding the police and funding our communities works, and that's why we need this administration to be able to continue its work over the next four months."
Later this week, President Biden and Harris are expected to announce additional gun and crime reforms, Feldman said.
