WASHINGTON (AP) — Homicides are declining in a cross-section of American cities, though their numbers remain higher than before the coronavirus pandemic took hold, according to a new report analyzing data from 30 U.S. cities.
Homicides on average dropped 9.4% during the first half of 2023 as compared to the same period last year, the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice found in a report released this week.
The numbers remained about 24% higher than they were in 2019, and motor vehicle thefts were up sharply in the analyzed cities.
“We’re seeing a continuing decline in homicides, but most cities are not back to levels that prevailed prior to the pandemic,” said Richard Rosenfeld, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and co-author of the report.
The report is based on crime data posed online by police departments in 37 cities of varying sizes around the country. Several of the nation’s largest cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, are represented, but researchers didn’t have immediate access to data for others, like Houston and San Diego. Of the cities that did post crime data online, 30 included homicide numbers and 20 of those showed declines.