Violent crime, including rape and murder, decreased across America in 2023 compared to the year prior, FBI data released on Monday indicates — even as homicide rates are running higher than pre-pandemic levels. 

Violent crime overall decreased about 3 percent nationally in 2023 compared to 2022, with murders decreasing by 11.6 percent and rape decreasing by 9.4 percent, the FBI’s annual “Summary of Crime in the Nation” indicates. Aggravated assault, robbery, and property crime trends decreased too, while motor vehicle thefts surged by 12.6 percent — with 1,067,522 recorded incidents in 2023.

The numbers come as crime has been a critical issue in the presidential election, especially among President Trump’s supporters, with 76 percent of them indicating that violent crime is “very important” to their vote, Pew Research surveying of registered voters indicates. Of Vice President Harris’s supporters, 46 percent put violent crime as a leading issue. 

The FBI’s numbers indicate that violent crime is slowly dwindling after homicides surged by more than 30 percent in 2020 — amid a rocky year including the Covid pandemic, protests following George Floyd’s murder, and sweeping changes to the criminal justice system. FBI data indicates there were 22,510 murders and negligent manslaughters in 2020 compared to 16,964  in 2019.

While 2023’s homicide numbers — 19,252 in total — are significantly less than the 21,781 homicides recorded in 2022, they’re still above pre-pandemic numbers. 
The FBI notes that its data, reported through participating law enforcement agencies, includes data from“more than 16,000 state, county, city, university and college, and tribal agencies, covering a combined population of 94.3% inhabitants.”