US Violent Crime Nearly Cut in Half Since 1990

Superfact 8 : US Violent Crime Nearly Cut in Half Since 1990

Despite all the news reports about rampant crime, the US violent crime rate has fallen to half of what it was in the early 1990’s.

I’ve known for a while that violent crime in the US has been going down substantially since 1990. However, quite often when I mention this people refuse to believe it. When I visit NextDoor, the hyperlocal social networking service for neighborhoods, I see people complaining about rising crime, and especially rising violent crime. The news media and the newspapers are filled with violent crime stories, murders, mass shootings, assaults, rape, and robberies. It seems to be getting worse and worse. We are living in scary times, aren’t we?

The Better Angels of our Nature

A couple of years ago I bought a book by Steven Pinker with the title The Better Angels of our Nature, why violence has declined, which contradicted the violence is getting worse narrative. In the book he claims that violence is trending down worldwide and that includes US violent crime.

In 1987 I received a Christmas present from the parents of a fellow student whom I had been tutoring. I was an exchange student to the United States from Sweden at the time. The Christmas present in question was the World Almanac of 1987. I loved it and ever since I’ve bought the World Almanac every year. If you open the pages for crime statistics in the United States in the World Almanac you see the same thing, violent crime in the US is declining.

The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2023.

Statistics

Below is what the World Almanac 2023 says about the violent crime rate per 100,000 residents in the United States (page 114). The data sources were : Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime in the United States 2020. I also included property crimes in the last column to show that non-violent crimes have declined as well.

YearAll violent crimeMurder and nonnegligent manslaughterRapeRobberyAggravated assaultAll property crime (non-violent)
1990729.69.441.1256.3422.95,073.1
1995684.58.237.1220.9418.34,590.5
2000506.55.532.0145.0324.03,618.3
2005469.05.631.8140.8290.83,431.5
2008458.65.429.8145.9277.53,214.6
2011387.14.727.0113.9241.52,905.4
2014361.64.426.6101.3229.22,574.1
2016386.65.430.0102.9248.32,451.6
2017383.85.330.798.6249.22,362.9
2018370.45.031.086.1248.22,209.8
2019368.65.131.481.8250.42,130.6
2020387.86.527.673.9279.71,958.2

The graph below is taken from this article from the Pew Research Center tells the same story. The graph. It shows that the US violent crime rate has nearly halved since the 1990’s. There is a slight uptick in crime for the years 2020 and 2021 but according to this PBS article the downward trend has continued in 2022 and 2023.

The four graphs show that both violent crime and property crime has declined since 1990. Click on the picture to see the Pew Research article it is taken from.

Since this is a surprising fact that some does not even want to acknowledge (in my experience) I consider this a super fact.

Do you feel it is hard to believe that violent crime in the US has been declining over the last few decades?

To see the other Super Facts click here

Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

35 thoughts on “US Violent Crime Nearly Cut in Half Since 1990”

  1. This is something that I can look at the statistics and accept. Yet when I watch the evening news, I see stories every day about nuts with guns who rob a 7-11 or gunfire at a party is on TV over and over again. For example, last night there was a very sad story about two brothers who got into a fight about something. One shot the other to death. People hear these things day after day and become convinced the world is going to hell.

    So I can see where people get the feeling (without looking at the statistics) that crime is a lot worse than it was thirty years ago. The stories about the tragedies and the crimes are amplified so much.

    And then there are dishonest politicians lying about how bad crime has gotten under the other guy.

    Thanks once again for bringing up such an intersection topic.

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    1. Yes you are right. When you read the news you get the impression that the world is going to hell, and crime is getting worse, yet all the statistics tell the opposite story. But even though 20,000 murders is disastrous it is still less than 30,000 and the news media typically report interesting stories, and only rarely comparative data. I was only aware if this discrepency because Steven Pinker’s book made me pay attention to the statistics, which can be found in a lot of places. You are also right about the politicians, they use people’s incorrect impressions to score points. If it is one thing I’ve learned is that you cannot trust what politicians are saying.

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  2. Possibly the statistics are right, at least according to this book’s figures. But, to me I have trouble believing it. All the local and national news report more and more crime of all kinds, every day, every country and state. Who really knows for sure.

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    1. You are right. It is hard to believe but it is not just the World Almanac and the Pew Research Center, all the primary and secondary sources report the same thing, FBI, US Bureau of Justice Statistics, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime in the United States, Department of Justice, and all the others, and academia accepts the statistics. The statistics is not identical between all sources, but almost. The thing with news media is that they write interesting stories to sell their news and it can give the wrong impression. There are also some violent crime that has actually gone up such as school shootings but they are a very small percent of overall violent crime. The recent wars with the largest casaulties and deaths is the war in Ethiopia (385,000–600,000 deaths) and the current Sudanese civil war (150,000 deaths in 2023 and 2024) but they are rarely in the news. Impressions from the news media is often incorrect. They aren’t lying. They are just writing more about certain things because that’s what people like to read.

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    1. Yes, mass shootings is one type of crime that has been on the rise in the United States, and it has been rising a lot. However, overall mass shootings is only a fraction of murders and violent crime so it does effect the overall statistics much. Mass shootings, especially at schools, get a lot of media attention world wide, but they are not a good indicator of the overall crime situation.

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    2. I agree mass shootings and school shootings is a particularly bizarre and ghastly form of violence, and it is growing. However, I read that deaths from mass shootings constitute less than 1% of all homicide deaths (in the US), which is why this growing trend has not effected the overall statistics much (well not yet).

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  9. Good news indeed, but as others have said, very hard to believe! With all the mass shootings in recent years and daily news reports of violent crimes, the perception is definitely the opposite. Even here in Canada, where crime rates are lower than in the U.S., we see more and more shootings, stabbings, car jackings, etc. than ever before.

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    1. Yes it is indeed hard believe but it still true. Mass shootings have become a lot more common here in the US and they have grown worse but they are less than 1% of the annual murder statistics so the increase is not effecting the overall statistics much. I was curious so I took a look and the Canadian crime statistics, and it is overall less but the trends are also different. As for the US it was decreasing since the 1990’s until 2013 and then it started going up and is almost back to the 1990’s numbers now. Also crime went down in the US in 2023 but up in Canada.

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  10. I accept your facts Thomas. But it surely doesn’t feel like this world is less violent. Interesting post. 🙂 (PS, aren’t you on Twitter? I always share your posts there but can’t seem to find your tag?)

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    1. Thank you Debby. You are right, it doesn’t feel that way. I was just talking to Debbie (with ie), also from Canada, so I looked up Canadian crime stats and it is a little different. Like the US crime statistics it went down from the 1990’s but then it started going up in 2013, unlike the US violent crime statistics. So Canada is doing worse. I also mentioned that the school shootings and the mass shootings have gone up in the US, but they are only a very small part of the murder statistics. However, for good reasons they get a lot of publicity.

      Thank you so much for sharing my posts on twitter. I have to admit I am not on twitter. I am wondering if I should join maybe.

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      1. Hi Thomas. Again, interesting, considering the amount of school shootings in the US to barely ever any here. And Debbie D is a friend, she also lives in Toronto (outskirts). As for Twitter, no wonder I couldn’t find you, lol. But I thought you were on it. Well, I hope my shares dribble in some new traffic for you. As for joining it. If you ask me, Twitter has become a cesspool. Honestly, I don’t use it to mingle or meet, although I have garnered quite a few followers over the years. But I stick to the writing community, sending and sharing posts on there. 🙂

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      2. If you would like to reach more people with your posts, then I think you should join X (Twitter), Thomas. Many of us use it mostly to promote others’ blogs, as well as our own. There is a lot of political garbage on there, but that can be ignored.

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    2. Thank you for doing that Debby. That is what I’ve heard, that it is a cesspool and very toxic, which is why I am hesitating to join. I have to think about it. It is great that you and Debbie already know each other. Thank you so much Debby.

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