In the United States, violent crimes are defined as incidents involving force or the threat of force. The main offences reported under violent crime are murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape and sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault. Violent crime is generally contrasted with property crime, with the latter defined as the taking of money or property without force (or the threat of force) against the victims. Note that in these definitions, robbery counts as violent crime whereas burglary does not. Comparing the number of committed crimes in U.S. by category, property crime
violent crime, while aggravated assault accounts for some two-thirds of all violent crime. Over the last two decades, the
in the United States has fallen dramatically; there were 1.93 million violent crimes in 1992 in comparison to 1.2 million violent crimes in 2023. A similar story is told by looking at the
per 100,000 residents, which factors in the role population growth plays in increasing the overall number of crimes.
Is violent crime actually in decline?
Despite the reported decline of violent crime, the U.S. still tops the global rankings for having the
most prisoners worldwide and the nation has had more
mass shootings and
school shootings than any other country, although they are generally not reported as a separate crime category owing to their relative infrequency. In addition, it is important to note that violent crime figures may not always be precise, as there is a worryingly high rate of
violent crimes not reported to police. This is particularly the case for rape and sexual assault, where only around one quarter of offences are reported. In addition, national trends of crime are estimated by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, who rely on law enforcement agencies around the country to
report their crime data accurately, which has not been the case in recent years. It is therefore almost certain that the actual rate of violent crime is considerably higher than official figures suggest.
Violent crime statistics by country: How much safer is Canada?
It can be difficult to compare violent crime rates between countries as many countries use different categories to distinguish between crimes. One metric that can be relatively easily compared, though, is the murder rate. Looking at the
cities with the highest murder rate in the world, even the most dangerous U.S. cities are much safer than some Latin American cities. However, St Louis recorded the seventh-highest murder rate of any city in 2023, and the United States has the dubious honor of being the only developed country with any cities in the top 20 – of which it has two. At the country level, comparing U.S. and
Canadian rates of violent crimes tells a similar but more complex story. While the rate of crimes like robbery and
homicide are significantly lower in Canada, the rate of serious assaults appears only slightly below that of the U.S. – although the differing reporting categories between each country means these comparisons are provisional at best.
Who are the victims of violence?
Studies have shown that violent crime victims belong to a diverse range of
age groups and are almost equally divided by
gender. Moreover, despite a widespread perception that crime is more common among some ethnic communities than others, the
racial breakdown of the prevalence of violent crime shows little difference between the share of people who were victims of violent crime in America’s three main racial groups. This similarity suggests the need to consider other factors, such as poverty and opportunities for social mobility, in order to understand how crime levels may differ between communities.
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