Skip to content
Version 1.0.0
Sentencing Law and Policy
Part of the Law Professor Blogs Network

Bureau of Justice Statistics releases “Homicide Victimization in the United States, 2023”

By Douglas Berman

Earlier this month, the Bureau of Justice Statistics released this new report titled “Homicide Victimization in the United States, 2023.” This full report runs 23 pages, and it is full of all sorts of notable data about homicides. Here is how it starts and the “Highlights” listed on the first page:

In 2023, there were an estimated 19,800 homicide victimizations in the United States, a rate of 5.9 homicides per 100,000 persons.  This was lower than the estimated 22,240 victimizations (6.7 per 100,000) in 2022 but higher than the 16,670 victimizations (5.0 per 100,000) in 2019.  Homicide refers to the offenses of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter and is defined as “the willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by another.”

Findings in this report are based on the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ and FBI’s National IncidentBased Reporting System (NIBRS) Estimation Program and the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR).

  • The rate of homicide victimization was 5.9 per 100,000 persons. This marks a decrease from the rate of 6.7 per 100,000 in 2022.
  • The male homicide victimization rate (9.3 per 100,000 persons) was 3.5 times greater than the homicide victimization rate for females (2.6 per 100,000).
  • The homicide victimization rate for black persons (21.3 per 100,000 persons) was more than 6 times the rate for white persons (3.2 per 100,000).
  • The largest percentage of homicide victimizations (39%) was committed by someone outside the family but known to the victim.
  • Females (0.9 per 100,000 persons) experienced a higher rate of intimate partner homicide than males (0.5 per 100,000).
  • Most homicide incidents (93%) involved one victim.
  • The percentage of homicide victimizations involving a firearm was 80%, compared to 68% in 2014.
  • About half of homicide victimizations were cleared by arrest (47%), which was not statistically different from the percentage that were not cleared (48%).

As I have noted in a number of prior recent posts (for example here and here), data drawn from city police reports suggest that 2024 saw an even bigger decrease in homicides than 2023 and these positive public safety developments have so far extended into 2025.  There is a reasonable basis to hope that 2025 will have historically low homicide rates nationwide, though these data from BJS are a useful reminded that national homicide data can somewhat mask how different groups experience very different rates of murder victimization.