The nationwide homicide price remained flat in 2021, after skyrocketing 29.4% because the pandemic raged the yr earlier than, in response to a brand new FBI report on crime statistics that might determine prominently within the political dialog as midterm elections strategy.
General, the FBI estimates that violent crime decreased 1% nationally, from 1,326,600 incidents in 2020 to 1,313,200 in 2021, the report launched Wednesday mentioned.
FBI officers expressed confidence within the common accuracy of their estimates, however the numbers include a serious caveat. The 2021 crime knowledge depends on estimates to a larger diploma than ever earlier than, as a result of the FBI modified its crime knowledge assortment system and plenty of main police jurisdictions — together with New York and Los Angeles — usually are not but collaborating.
Thus, whereas the report estimates that homicide elevated 4.3 p.c as theft decreased by 8.9 p.c, FBI officers cautioned in opposition to putting an excessive amount of emphasis on the fluctuations. In different phrases, they are saying, crime charges stayed about the identical.
“You will need to word that these estimated developments usually are not thought-about statistically vital,” the FBI mentioned in a information launch. “The nonsignificant nature of the noticed developments is why, regardless of these described adjustments, the general message is that crime remained constant.”
Although that means the massive spike in murders in the course of the pandemic has now flatlined, the homicide price continues to be a lot increased than earlier than the pandemic. Different surveys have discovered that property crime has been on the rise up to now yr as the speed of inflation has risen.
This knowledge comes on the identical day a Politico/Morning Seek the advice of ballot discovered that greater than three-quarters of voters mentioned violent crime is a serious downside within the U.S.
Nevertheless, a September NBC Information ballot discovered that crime ranked seventh amongst voters’ high issues, trumped by points referring to the financial system, immigration and abortion.
