Murders across the United States have surged since 2019, while robberies and motor vehicle thefts soared last year, a new study of crime trends published on Jan. 26 by the Council on Criminal Justice shows.
The Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ), a nonpartisan organization, examined monthly crime rates for ten violent, property, and drug offenses in 35 U.S. cities in 2022.
It found that the number of murders in 2022 was 4 percent lower compared to a year earlier, with a decrease of 242 incidents across the 27 American cities that publically report monthly homicide data.
However, the murder rate was still 34 percent higher than it was in 2019, before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the study notes that the total number of homicides was about half as high as it was during the historical peaks nationwide, which occurred in 1980 and 1991….