FBI report shows decrease in violent crime, increase in motor vehicle theft in 2023

Washington — Violent crime and property crime decreased overall in 2023, according to data released by the FBI on Monday, although the year saw a rise in car thefts. 

The FBI’s 2023 crime report, which the agency releases annually, uses crime statistics from law enforcement agencies and partners throughout the country to outline the crime landscape nationwide. In 2023, the data was submitted by more than 16,000 agencies.

This year’s report comes just weeks ahead of the presidential election, where crime has become a key issue on the campaign trail. 

Violent crime down

Violent crime — which includes murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, aggravated assault and robbery — decreased by around 3% from 2022 to 2023 nationwide, the report found. 

Among the findings, murder and non-negligent manslaughter saw a decrease of 11.6% from the previous year, along with a 9.4% decrease in rape, a 0.3% decrease in robberies and a 2.8% decrease in aggravated assault. 

The declining violent crime rates come after a spike in violent crime during the COVID-19 pandemic. Violent crime also waned in 2022, falling by 1.7%.

Overall, more than 1.2 million violent crimes were committed in 2023, the report estimated. 

Murder rate sees largest single-year decline in 20 years

The decrease in the murder rate between 2022 and 2023 represents the “largest drop” in the rate in the last 20 years, an FBI official said.

The murder rate fell from 6.5 to 5.7 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023. The decline comes after the murder rate spiked to an average of 6.6 per 100,000 people from 2020 to 2022. But the 2023 figures are still slightly higher than the 20-year average.

Property crime down, car thefts up

Property crime was also down overall, with a 2.4% drop from 2022, accounting for burglary, larceny theft and motor vehicle theft. While burglary decreased by 7.6% and larceny — property theft without violence — by 4.4%, motor vehicle theft saw an increase of 12.6%, according to the report. 

Motor vehicle thefts were also up substantially in 2022, with a nearly 11% rise from 2021. While that year saw the largest year-to-year motor vehicle theft rate increase, the report says 2023 marked the highest motor vehicle theft rate since 2007. Among the thefts, cars were the most common, seeing a more than 20% increase in theft between 2022 and 2023, as compared to buses, trucks and other vehicles, the report says.

In 2023, more than 6.4 million property crimes were committed, according to the report. 

Campaigning on crime

Crime has been among the most prominent issues candidates have invoked on the campaign trail, and has been especially pronounced among Republicans. 

During the presidential debate earlier this month, former President Donald Trump claimed that crime is “through the roof” in the U.S. And after the moderators pointed to FBI statistics that suggest otherwise, Trump called the agency’s data “defrauding statements.”

Trump has often criticized the Biden-Harris administration on crime, claiming that the country is much more dangerous than it was four years ago under his own administration.

On Monday, President Biden touted the FBI figures, noting that although the administration had seen among the highest murder rates when he first came to office, the new report from the agency “confirms again that Americans are safer than when we took office.”

“None of this happened by accident,” the president said in a statement, pointing to public safety and firearm initiatives. “We’re not stopping now.”

contributed to this report.