"Crime fell across much of the U.S. in 2025 in the Midwest, the South, the Northeast and the West, in big cities and small towns, and in red and blue states. The number of murders saw a huge drop about 20% fewer than in 2024, according to the Real Time Crime Index, which uses local crime data from nearly 600 jurisdictions around the country."
"During 2020 and 2021, homicide rates surged across the U.S. Now the nation is simply on the other side of that surge. 'There was a wide array of stresses economic, financial, psychological that the pandemic produced,' said Adam Gelb, president of the Council on Criminal Justice, which researches criminal justice policies. 'And there were greater opportunities to settle beefs with rivals, precisely because there were fewer people on the streets and fewer cops on the streets.'"
"Other violent crimes, including rape, robbery and aggravated assault, also declined, as did property crimes like motor vehicle theft and burglaries. "It's the best year in crime I've seen in 27 years in this business," says John Roman, who directs the Center on Public Safety & Justice at NORC, a research group at the University of Chicago. NPR spoke to researchers who study trends in crime, policing and criminal justice about the numbers."
Crime declined across the United States in 2025, with reductions reported in all regions, in large and small jurisdictions, and in both red and blue states. Murders decreased by roughly 20% compared with 2024. Other violent offenses such as rape, robbery and aggravated assault fell, along with property crimes including motor vehicle theft and burglary. The Real Time Crime Index compiles local data from nearly 600 jurisdictions. The decline follows the pandemic-era homicide surge of 2020–2021, and correlates with rebounds in local government jobs and services and the easing of pandemic-related stresses and conditions that enabled violence.
Read at www.npr.org
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