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Latest CCJ accounting of crime trends shows mostly encouraging news from 2022 about violent crimes (but not property crimes)

By Douglas Berman

In this post last week, I flagged some of the encouraging 2022 homicide data drawn from this AH Datalytics webpage‘s “YTD Murder Comparison” Dashboard.  And I am now very pleased to see that the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) is continuing to do important and timely work on broader modern crime trends by continuing its on-going series of crime data reports under the heading “Pandemic, Social Unrest, and Crime in U.S. Cities.”  The latest version of this report, titled “Pandemic, Social Unrest, and Crime in U.S. Cities: Year-End 2022 Update,” was just released and this CCJ press release provides the data basic in its full heading: “Homicide, Gun Assault, Domestic Violence Declined in Major U.S. Cities in 2022 but Remain Above Pre-Pandemic Levels: New CCJ Analysis Also Documents a 59% Spike in Motor Vehicle Theft Since 2019, With Thefts More Than Doubling in 8 Cities.”

The full report, which is based on “monthly crime rates for ten violent, property, and drug offenses in 35 U.S. cities in calendar year 2022,” is available at this link.  Here are some of the “Findings” set forth on the report webpage:

  • The number of homicides in 2022 was 4% lower than counts recorded in 2021, representing 242 fewer murders in the 27 cities that publicly report monthly homicide data.  The national homicide rate remained 34% higher than in 2019, the year before the pandemic began, and about half the historical nationwide peaks in 1980 and 1991.

  • There were 3.5% fewer aggravated assaults in 2022 than in 2021.  The number of gun assaults dropped by 7% in 2022, but this trend is based on data from just 11 cities and should be viewed with additional caution.  Domestic violence incidents decreased by 5% between 2021 and 2022.  This finding is based on just 11 cities studied and also should be viewed with extra caution.

  • Robberies (+5.5%), nonresidential burglaries (+11%), larcenies (+8%), and motor vehicle thefts (+21%) all increased from 2021 to 2022. Residential burglaries fell by 2%.