Browsing: Crime Statistics

The rise in murders in the U.S. slowed in 2021, increasing 4 percent last year after surging nearly 30 percent in 2020. But California, Florida and New York didn’t report figures because of problems adjusting to a new reporting system.

Although carjackings continue to be a terrifying staple of local news reports, the “rate of nonfatal victimization” has declined dramatically between 1995 and 2021—and victims are more likely not to be affluent, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Measuring the success or failure of justice reforms by statistics like the number of deaths is an example of the “myopic focus on data” that ignores the wider narrative about the drivers of crime in America, writes TCR commentator James Doyle.