Crime and murse rates decrease nationwide

The nationwide crime and murder rates are falling, especially in the five most important US cities such as Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Phoenix. Many municipalities have recorded significant reduction in violent crimes, with some of the murders of the murders compared to the past few years.

In 2024, New York recorded a reduction in total index crime by almost 3 percent with 3,662 incidents. The murders decreased by 11 percent in 2023. In Los Angeles, the murders were declined by 16 percent in 2023 and reported on a decline in violent crimes as a whole. Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States, reported in 2023 about a significant decline in murders, while the fifth largest Phoenix recorded a decline in total crime by 4 percent and a significant decrease in the murders by 28 percent in 2024.

Despite systemic racist inequalities throughout the city, Chicago 2023 had a reduction in murders by 13 percent. The website of the city officials increased investments in mental health and improved the strategies for law enforcement as an participant to a decline.

The city and the district have significantly increased its investments in violence prevention programs, with Chicago being assigned over $ 100 million in the budget of the 2025 financial year for the prevention of violence in the municipality. This financing supports a number of programs that aim to reduce gun violence, including Street Outreach, trauma-informed care, youth development and employment initiatives.

The budget of the police authority in Chicago has also increased from $ 1.94 billion in 2023 to $ 2.1 billion in 2025, which is due to an increase of around $ 160 million or 8.2 percent in two years. If additional work expenses such as pensions, health services, overtime, statutory settlements and other indirect costs are taken into account, the total expenditure for police work in Chicago for 2025, according to the city's online portal, could be tackled 3.8 billion US dollars.

In the 2025 financial year, Cook County provided more than 100 million US dollars for the prevention of violence and combating basic causes for crime. The district has shown 103.1 million US dollars for its equity fund, which supports various initiatives that aim at structural inequalities. This includes the financing of grants for weapons, the resident programs and the development of CVI strategies (community violence intervention) in cooperation with state and state partners.

The district council received $ 20 million to support community-based organizations that focused on violence prevention, restorative justice and re-entry services. This financing aims to enable local groups that work directly with endangered population groups, and $ 15 million were assigned to the expansion of behavioral health services, including crisis intervention. A further $ 10 million were shown for youth-oriented initiatives such as after-school programs, mentoring and vocational training in order to provide positive alternatives and to reduce the involvement of young people to criminal activities.

In the Budget budget of Illinois' fiscal year 2025, over 300 million US dollars for initiatives to prevent crime and violence such as the restore, Reinvest, Renew (R3) program, which received 200 million US dollars for the financing of community organizations in areas that are disproportionately affected by violence and poverty, were received of $ 200 million. And an additional $ 4 million is intended for nationwide capacity surpluses to improve the effectiveness of programs to prevent violence.

As part of the law on public security in Refamagine, the state invested 150 million US dollars in funds to reduce the violence of firearms, with more than 50 million dollars being assigned especially for CVI services in Chicago. Private and philanthropic organizations have also contributed to these efforts. Citizens' and corporate groups have promised $ 100 million for the financing of anti-violence investments and renewed their commitment to support programs on a municipal basis.

Both New York and Los Angeles pursued similar approaches to reduce crime. This year, Governor Kathy Hochul announced another state fund of $ 20.7 million this year to support Snug Street -Outreach programs in 14 municipalities in the state of New York. These programs employ Outreach workers and case managers to include individuals with weapons violence in order to change behavior and increase opportunities. Governor 2025's budget is 347 million US dollars to continue the efforts of New York's efforts to continue gun violence.

Los Angeles started his Community Safety Partnership (CPS), a program that promotes cooperation between community members and law enforcement authorities to build trust and reduce crime. By integrating gang interventionists and preventionists, CSP has contributed to a significant reduction in violent crimes for participating districts according to the city's website. The recommended budget from Los Angeles County 2025-26 comprises $ 287.7 million for the initiative for Care First and Community, whereby total financing of USD 571.6 million is available, including unpaid funds from previous years.

The Californian state budget for 2024-25 contains $ 17.8 billion from the General Fund for Programs for Justice and Criminal Justice, including support for program companies and capital expenditure.

Researchers of the Brennan Center for Justice examined the national crime trends. Her analyzes indicate that violent crimes, including murders, decreases since 2021, with significant declines observed in 2023. They attribute this reduction to several factors, such as:

Last March, a television report from WTTW News emphasized that the murder rate in Chicago, although the crime as a whole falls nationwide, does not decrease as quickly as in New York and Los Angeles.

According to the crime laboratory of the University of Chicago, black residents are still “disproportionately affected by gun violence, 22 times more killed than white residents,” said the research group at the end of 2024.

“Chicago murders and non-fatal shootings continued from their recent top value from 2020 and 2021. Despite these encouraging trends, Chicago continues to sit down with inequalities associated with breed and geography, as well as an increased violent crime in which they have crime as a whole,” wrote the crime laboratory in “2024 end-of-year analysis: Chicago crime, in the mixture and non-faal shooting and non-faithful shootout, which has a decrease and decrease in mixtures and a decline and a decrease, and a termination in mixtures and shots that undergo the shooting and non-fatal analysis.

“Although the violence crimes decreased compared to the previous year, it is still higher than in the 5-year average. The main tests for this upward trend are severe attacks, tightened batteries and robberies (with the exception of carjackings),” the laboratory reported.

It should be noted that murders nationwide recorded a historical decline in 2023, which has marked the greatest decline in the individual year in two decades. In the first quarter of 2025, Chicago recorded 96 murders, a decline of more than 15 percent compared to the same period in the previous year.

The recent Universal Crime Report (UCR) of the FBI shows that violent crime and crime of property crime also decreased in 2023. Since there is no federal law that obliges the local police authorities to submit data to the Feds, this is considered a voluntary reporting system.

However, the federal government also pursues not reported crimes through its national crime -victimization Survey (NCVS). The US Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) estimates the number of crimes not reported by interviewing almost 90 households (or 200,000 people aged 12 and over) in order to determine the percentage of violent crimes and property crimes that were not reported to the police for various reasons.

Cases of rape, domestic violence and other violent attacks can be subjected to the fear of the victim, distrust of the court system, justice and documented historical and social factors. Many black and Latin American communities have experienced racial profiles, police brutality and systemic over -polarization. On the other hand, the same communities often report with slow reactions from the police, the indifference in sexual assault or domestic violence or fear of escalation and damage or death for themselves or in their households.

Undocumented Latinos, Caribbean or African citizens can also fear that contact with law enforcement authorities could lead to the participation or deportation of ice, even if they are victims of crime, according to the Urban Institute.

Prison & prisons

With regard to the detention rates, BJS stated that 664,200 people were housed in 2023.

In February, the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) reported a total population of 26,580 people. This number represents a significant decrease in the state's state detention figures and has marked the lowest level in almost three decades. The state's prison facilities have a operating capacity of 35,786, which indicates a vacancy rate of approx. 26 percent.

According to the Sheriff Office of the Cook County Sheriff, the Cook County prison has accommodated 5,674 people, which has a significant decline in the past three years. In January 2024, the average daily prison population was approximately 4,675, which decreased from 58 percent compared to the top population from 11,248 in September 2013

The reduction of the population of local prisons and the state prison population corresponds to the more comprehensive reforms of the criminal justice in Illinois, including the implementation of the law on pre -judicial fairness in September 2023, which abolished the deposit of cash and imposed stricter limits for pre -judicial detention.

At the national level, the detainment rate was 198 people per 100,000 US residents, which decade a decade of 231 prisons per 100,000 a decade ago. From July 2022 to June 2023, local prisons recorded 7.6 million approvals nationwide. While this corresponds to an increase of 4 percent compared to the 7.3 million attitudes in the previous year, the annual approvals were 35 percent lower than a decade ago than the approvals were 11.7 million.