US violent crime posts record fall: FBI

Washington, Aug 19 (IANS) The United States recorded its largest year-to-year decline in the violent crime rate in nearly nine decades in 2025, with murders and robberies falling sharply, according to detailed FBI data released by the White House.

Violent crime fell an estimated 9.3 per cent from 2024, while the violent crime rate declined 9.7 per cent, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Programme said. It was the largest annual drop in the rate since national estimates began in 1936.

The estimated murder and non-negligent manslaughter rate fell 18.5 per cent, also the steepest annual decline recorded by the FBI. The number of such offences dropped 18.1 per cent.

The murder rate stood at 4.1 per 100,000 people. That matched the rates recorded in 1955 and 1956, making it the joint-lowest since national estimates began.

The FBI estimated that 1,119,768 violent crimes were committed across the country in 2025. That amounted to 327.6 offences for every 100,000 people, down from 362.9 in 2024.

Robbery declined 18.5 per cent to an estimated 168,927 offences. Rape fell 7.6 per cent to 123,332 cases, while aggravated assault decreased 7.2 per cent to 813,424 offences.

Aggravated assaults accounted for 72.6 per cent of violent crimes reported to law enforcement. Robbery accounted for 15.1 per cent, rape for 11 per cent and murder for 1.3 per cent.

Firearms were used in 72.3 per cent of murders for which weapons data were available. They were also used in 29.1 per cent of robberies and 30.6 per cent of aggravated assaults.

Property crime declined an estimated 12.4 per cent, the FBI said. About 5.24 million property crimes were recorded, including burglary, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft.

Motor vehicle theft fell 22.7 per cent, burglary dropped 15.8 per cent and larceny-theft declined 9.8 per cent. Property crime was down 33.6 per cent compared with its estimated level in 2016.

Reported hate crime incidents also declined. A dataset used to calculate the national trend showed a 7 per cent fall, from 11,404 incidents in 2024 to 10,606 in 2025.

The wider hate crime collection included reports of 10,881 criminal incidents and 13,026 related offences motivated by bias involving race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender or gender identity.

More than 17,000 law enforcement agencies participated in the 2025 crime data collection, covering 96.2 per cent of the US population. Every city agency serving at least one million people submitted a full year of data.

The White House credited President Donald Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel with the fall. It said the FBI had made nearly 54,000 violent crime arrests, including arrests of more than 31,000 violent criminals and gang members.

It also cited preliminary figures for the first half of 2026 showing violent crime down another 10.6 per cent from the same period in 2025. Murder fell 23 per cent, rape 18.6 per cent and robbery 19.6 per cent, according to the preliminary data.

–IANS

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