American cities recorded a dramatic drop in murders last year — a 21% decline from 2024 C.E. that researchers say may represent the lowest U.S. homicide rate in roughly 125 years. The fall was the single largest one-year drop on record, according to a new report from the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ), and it landed alongside broad declines across nearly every major crime category.
At a glance
- Homicide rate: Murders fell 21% in 2025 C.E. from 2024 C.E. — the largest single-year recorded drop — with rates declining in 27 of 35 cities studied.
- Violent crime trends: Overall violent crime is at or below 2019 C.E. levels, and carjackings have plunged 61% since 2023 C.E., while shoplifting fell 10% from 2024 C.E.
- Crime data analysis: The CCJ report drew on data from 40 large U.S. cities across 13 crime types, offering one of the broadest snapshots of urban crime in recent memory.
What the data shows
The CCJ’s annual crime trends report, released in January 2026 C.E., pulled data from 40 large cities — including New York, Philadelphia, Omaha, and Raleigh — selected based on the availability of statistics at the time of collection.
Cities showed steep and varied declines. Richmond, Virginia, recorded a 59% drop in homicides. Los Angeles saw a 39% fall. New York City’s murder count declined by 10%. Atlanta recorded under 100 homicides in 2025 C.E. for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic, with a 14% drop from the prior year. Compared to 2019 C.E., there were 25% fewer homicides across the sample cities.
Drug offenses were the only crime category that rose during the study period. Sexual assault held steady. Every other tracked category — from carjackings to theft — moved downward.
Why homicides fell
Researchers were careful not to overstate certainty. Lead author Ernesto Lopez, a senior research specialist at CCJ, wrote that “identifying decisive factors with certainty is challenging.” Still, a group of criminal justice experts convened by the Council identified several likely drivers.
The stabilization of daily routines after the pandemic’s disruption played a role. So did an influx of COVID-19 relief funds that supported community programs. Improved court functioning — which had stalled during the pandemic — allowed cases to move forward again.
Thaddeus Johnson, an assistant professor of criminal justice and criminology at Georgia State University and a former Memphis police official, pointed to focused enforcement in high-risk neighborhoods. “Many cities focused enforcement and prevention on the small number of neighborhoods and groups driving a large share of shootings, improved shooting investigations, and got the courts moving again,” he said.
Johnson also highlighted the return of informal guardianship — community members present on the streets who can defuse tension before it turns violent. That social fabric, frayed during the pandemic years, appears to be rebuilding in many places.
A longer arc of progress
The 2025 C.E. numbers don’t arrive in a vacuum. Lopez noted that homicide rates had been falling steadily since the late 2000s, interrupted by a sharp spike beginning in 2020 C.E. that coincided with pandemic-era disruptions and social upheaval. “It is possible that these rates reflect a longer-term downward trend punctuated by periods of elevated homicides,” he said.
If current figures hold up to further analysis, the U.S. murder rate may be near its lowest point since 1900 C.E. — a century of data suggesting that, on the whole, American cities have become meaningfully safer over generations, even if the journey has not been smooth.
Atlanta Police Chief Darren Schierbaum, speaking at a press conference Tuesday, credited sustained focus on community-level intervention. He called on residents to embrace “conflict resolution,” noting that a significant share of the city’s remaining homicides stem from escalating personal disputes — a reminder that the human dimensions of violence don’t disappear with statistics alone.
Where caution is still warranted
The gains are real, but they are not uniform. Johnson put it plainly: “National averages can hide what is happening in some neighborhoods. The key question is which neighborhoods are sustaining gains, and which are not.” Some cities in the study saw reductions of under 5%, and rates in a handful held steady rather than declined.
The CCJ report also covers only 40 large cities, so rural and small-town crime trends — which can move differently from urban ones — are not fully captured here. And with drug offenses rising even as other crimes fell, the picture of public safety remains complex. Progress at the city level will need sustained investment in both enforcement and prevention to last.
Read more
For more on this story, see: CBS News
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