Media starting to take more note of notable homicide declines in 2023

Regular readers know I have been documenting that, after significant increases in homicides throughout the US in 2020 and 2021, homicide numbers saw small declines in 2022 and these declines have increased into 2023.  (Posts in 2023 on this front, with links to some major city data, can be found here and here and here.)  Encouragingly, a number of media outlets have started discussing these encouraging homicide developments:

From The Atlantic, “The Murder Rate Is Suddenly Falling: The first five months of 2023 have produced an encouraging overall trend for the first time in years.”

From the Christian Science Monitor, “What is behind a huge drop in the murder rate this year?“

From the Wall Street Journal, “Homicides Are Falling in Major American Cities: Local officials say pandemic factors that drove up murder rates are receding”

From the Washington Times, “Multiple U.S. cities experiencing decline in homicides, research firm says“

As I have said before, homicide trends always seem to be unpredictable and data can change in lots of ways in coming months.  Still, the latest homicide data continue to be trending the right way, and it is good to see these trends now getting broader attention.