According to FBI data, murder and rape have declined nationwide over the past year, while car thefts have increased

According to FBI data released Monday, violent crimes, including rape and murder, declined across America in 2023 compared to the previous year – even though murder rates are higher than before the pandemic.

Overall, violent crime declined about 3 percent nationwide in 2023 compared to 2022, with murders down 11.6 percent and rapes down 9.4 percent, according to the FBI's annual Summary of Crime in the Nation. Aggravated assault, robbery and property crimes also saw declines, while auto thefts increased 12.6 percent — with 1,067,522 recorded incidents in 2023.

These figures come at a time when crime is a key issue in the presidential election, especially among supporters of President Trump. Seventy-six percent of them said violent crime was “very important” to their voting decision, according to a Pew Research Institute survey of registered voters. Among Vice President Harris' supporters, 46 percent cited violent crime as the most important issue.

FBI figures suggest violent crime is slowly declining after homicides rose more than 30 percent in 2020 amid a difficult year that included the Covid pandemic, protests following the killing of George Floyd and sweeping changes to the criminal justice system. There were 22,510 murders and involuntary manslaughters in 2020, compared to 16,964 in 2019, according to FBI data.

Although the number of murders in 2023 – 19,252 in total – is significantly lower than the 21,781 murders recorded in 2022, it is still higher than pre-pandemic figures.
The FBI notes that its data, which is transmitted through participating law enforcement agencies, includes data from “more than 16,000 state, county, city, university, college, and tribal agencies, collectively covering 94.3% of the population.”