FBI's 2024 Crime Report—High-Level Trend Analysis
The FBI's 2024 Crime Report reveals a significant nationwide drop in both violent and property crimes, reaching some of their lowest levels since the 1960s, despite some crimes like shoplifting and certain hate crimes increasing.
New crime data from the Federal Bureau of Investigations shows a significant drop in property and violent crime, which is welcomed news to businesses and communities who have evolved their safety and security strategies.
The FBI’s 2024 Crime Report compiles data from over 16,000 law enforcement agencies across the nation, including major cities like Los Angeles, which haven't consistently reported in years. The report provides a broad look at categories of crime and how they’re changing compared to recent years. This data represents a low not seen since the 1960s. While crime is still prevalent in every city and state, this article gives a high-level analysis of the report’s key trends and covers the areas in which we’ve seen crime rates drop significantly.
Key Findings from the 2024 Report
Down in nearly every category, crime rates have drastically improved, particularly compared to 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic when some crime rates spiked.
Violent Crime
The FBI reports an overall decrease in national violent crime by an estimated 4.5% in 2024 compared to 2023, and this positive trend was seen across all subcategories:
- Murder and non-negligent manslaughter decreased by an estimated 14.9%.
- Aggravated assault is down by 3.0%.
- Robbery saw an 8.9% decrease.
- The revised rape category decreased by 5.2%.
Property Crime
Property crime also dropped by 8.1%, with rates reaching their lowest since 1961. This is a promising trend for both communities and businesses.
- Burglaries are down 8.6%.
- Motor vehicle thefts dropped a record 18.6%—though still higher than 2019.
- Larceny-theft decreased by 5.5%.
- But, shoplifting saw an 8.9% increase.
Learn more about the costs of organized retail theft in this infographic from LVT.
Hate Crimes
The report also found a decrease in reported hate crime incidents by 1.5% in 2024. However, it is important to note that while the overall numbers are down, antisemitic and anti-Muslim incidents have unfortunately been on the rise.
The Challenge of Unreported Crimes
Despite the positive trend of overall crime decreasing in the United States last year, a significant portion of crimes go unreported. According to an annual survey from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2022, victims told police about only 41.5% of violent crimes and just 31.8% of household property crimes.
The FBI report’s statistics on crime frequency show that vigilance is still a necessity:
- A violent crime occurred, on average, every 25.9 seconds.
- A murder occurred every 31.1 minutes.
- A rape occured every 4.1 minutes.
These numbers serve as powerful reminders that although crime is decreasing, our work is not over. It’s up to us to help the trends continue to move downward by continuing our crime prevention tactics and reporting.
Safer Communities Start with Us
Crime rates ebb and flow, but our efforts to prevent crime don’t have to. As business owners, managers, employees, and community members, we all have a part in crime prevention. From surveillance technology to collaboration with local law enforcement, resources exist to help create safer and more secure communities.
We want to know—are you seeing the same decreasing crime trends? If so, how are you helping drive crime rates down? Take our survey to share your experience.
→ To learn more about how to make communities safer and more secure through mobile security technology, visit lvt.com.
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