New CCJ report details “Crime Trends in U.S. Cities: Mid-Year 2025 Update”
The Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) today released its latest accoutning of recent crime trends through this new report titled “Crime Trends in U.S. Cities: Mid-Year 2025 Update.” Here are some of the encouraging details from the the report’s “Key Takeaways”:
Reported levels of 11 of the 13 offenses covered in this report were lower in the first half of 2025 than in the first half of 2024; domestic violence was the only offense that rose during this period, and drug offenses remained even.
Looking at changes in violent offenses from the first six months of 2024 and 2025, the rate of homicides in the 30 study cities providing data for that crime was 17% lower, representing 327 fewer homicides. There were 10% fewer reported aggravated assaults, 21% fewer gun assaults, 10% fewer sexual assaults, and 3% more domestic violence incidents. Robbery fell by 20%, while carjackings (a type of robbery) decreased by 24%.
Motor vehicle theft had been on the rise from the summer of 2020 through 2023, but that trend reversed in 2024 and the downward trajectory continued into this year; there were 25% fewer motor vehicle thefts in the first half of 2025 than in the first half of 2024.
Reports of residential burglaries (-19%), non-residential burglaries (-18%), larcenies (-12%), and shoplifting (-12%) all fell in the first six months of 2025 compared to the first part of 2024, while drug offenses remained even.
Examining trends over a longer timeframe, violent crimes are below levels seen in the first half of 2019, the year prior to the onset of the COVID pandemic and racial justice protests of 2020. There were 14% fewer homicides in the study cities in the first half of 2025 than in the first half of 2019. Similarly, reported aggravated assault (-5%), gun assaults (-4%), sexual assault (-28%), domestic violence (-8%), robbery (-30%), and carjacking (-3%) were lower in 2025.
As noted in prior CCJ reports, much of the decline in the national homicide rate that began in late 2022 was driven by large declines in a few sample cities with high homicide levels. The most recent data show that all of the sample cities are now below the general peak of 2020 to 2021, but only 38% of the city sample is below pre-2020 levels.
Property crime trends have been mixed over the last six years. There were fewer reported residential burglaries (-47%), larcenies (-19%), and shoplifting incidents (-4%) in the first half of 2025 than in the first half of 2019. Of the 13 offenses covered in this analysis, only one — reported motor vehicle theft — remained elevated (+25%) compared to mid-year 2019 totals, while nonresidential burglaries were even with those levels. Drug offenses in the first half of 2025 were 27% below levels seen in the first half of 2019.
Though these declines are promising, especially the drop in homicide rates, crime trends can be deceptive. After reaching an historic low in 2014, the national homicide rate spiked by 23% just two years later. While there are plausible theories for that turnabout, and for the volatile patterns over the past five years, the drivers of these trends are poorly understood. Greater investment in rigorous research is critical to shed more light on the changing crime landscape and to craft effective crime control approaches for the future. In the meantime, many communities continue to suffer from disturbingly high rates of violence, and evidence-based crime reduction strategies are still urgently needed.