The violent crime rate in the U.S. has returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2022, an annual release from the FBI has found. There were 380.7 violent crimes per 100,000 people reported to the FBI from law enforcement agencies last year, a 0.1 point decrease from 2019. In 2020, the rate had been as high as 398.5, while the FBI estimates that it stood at 387.0 in 2021.
2020 saw a spike in murders and aggrevated assaults in the U.S. that has not been fully understood. Reasons like pandemic stress, the proliferation of guns in the country and distrust in police have been named as potential reasons. Rates for both crime types have come down in 2022 but remain above pre-pandemic levels. It is due to the decrease in the rate of rapes and robberies, which are lower now than before the pandemic, that the overall rate of violent crime has come down to 2019 levels once again.
Looking at property crimes, including motor vehicle theft, burglary, larceny and theft, the rate stood at 1,954.4 incidents in 2022, up from 1,832.3 in 2021. It was the first rise in many years as the rate had been falling almost continuously since the 1990s. While burglary rates continued to drop, motor vehicle theft as well as the more common larceny-theft category have been seeing rising rates since 2020 and 2021, respectively.
