National Homicide Rate Trending To Be Lowest In A Century

Homicide rates decreased by 18% in 30 US cities, with the lowest levels in over a century.
Conservative and liberal politicians attribute the drop to different policies and enforcement measures.
A third of cities saw increases, with Norfolk and San Francisco experiencing the largest spikes.

Police Siren — Source: General / Radio One

Between the crippling economy, the war in Iran, and America’s ongoing tilt into authoritarianism, it feels like it’s nonstop doom and gloom these days. So, thankfully, we got some good news for a change today! A new report shows that homicide rates have significantly declined across the United States.

According to AP, a report from the independent Council on Criminal Justice found there was an 18% decrease in the homicide rate from 2025 compared to the same period in 2026 across 30 American cities. This equates to about 215 fewer homicides this year, and should the trend continue, 2026 will have the lowest amount of homicides in over a century.

The report also found that the lethality of violent crimes committed has gone down by 23%. When it comes to burglaries, the data found a 3% drop year over year in residential burglaries and a 50% drop in burglaries compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

There was a 5% increase in shoplifting, which isn’t that surprising considering how poor the economy is right now. The data also shows a slight increase in drug offenses, but they are still noticeably lower than pre-pandemic levels.

Adam Gelb, the president and CEO of the Council on Criminal Justice, points out that the drop in violent crime is happening in cities under both Democrat and Republican leadership.

“Murder and other crime rates are falling across the map in cities with different political leadership, different housing and economic conditions, different policing and prosecution and violence reduction strategies and different levels of federal enforcement activity,” Gelb told AP.

That said, there have been several cities that have bucked the trend of declining homicide rates.

From AP:

Roughly a third of the 30 sampled cities defied average homicide rate declines across the country, recording an increase in deadly violence from the first half of 2025 to the same period in 2026. That includes Norfolk, Virginia, which saw a 64% increase in homicides, and San Francisco, which saw a 55% increase. The number of cities that saw a longer-term increase was far smaller: Only Norfolk, Austin, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis experienced more homicides in 2026 than in the same period in 2019.

There are many factors that could impact why a location sees increases or decreases in certain crimes when another doesn’t, according to John Roman, director of the Center on Public Safety and Justice at the National Opinion Research Center from the University of Chicago.

Roman said that conservative politicians affiliated with President Donald Trump will point to intensified immigration crackdowns and the deployment of the National Guard in cities like Los Angeles and Memphis, whereas liberal politicians might point to former Democratic President Joe Biden’s public safety legislation that strengthened background checks on firearm sales.

While the data will inevitably have both Democrats and Republicans trying to take credit for the drop in crime, I’m honestly just glad to see that fewer people are dying. “This is one of the most significant public safety developments in decades. It means lives are being saved, families are spared trauma and communities are regaining stability,” Gelb told AP.

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