Violent crime falls for a third straight year
The FBI reported Monday that the U.S. murder rate fell 18.1% in 2025, reaching its lowest level since 1956. The annual Uniform Crime Report showed violent crime overall dropped 6.2% from the previous year, continuing a decline that began in 2022 after a spike during the pandemic years.
Property crime also fell, the FBI said, with burglary and motor vehicle theft both down. The report draws on data from roughly 16,000 law enforcement agencies covering nearly all of the U.S. population. It is the most complete national picture of crime available.
What the data shows
The report put the 2025 murder rate at 4.1 per 100,000 residents, down from 5.0 the year before. Aggravated assault and robbery also declined. FBI officials said the numbers reflect a mix of focused policing strategies, community violence intervention programs and broader demographic trends.
Criminologists offered a more careful reading. They noted that some police departments changed how they report crime data, which can distort year-to-year comparisons. They also pointed out that crime remains above levels seen in the early 2010s in several large cities, and that declines have been uneven across regions.
Political reaction
The report arrives as President Trump highlights public safety in his messaging ahead of the November midterm elections. Administration officials called the data evidence that federal support for local law enforcement is working. Democratic lawmakers responded that the decline began before the current administration took office and warned against cutting community-based programs.
Attorney General officials said the department would continue funding police hiring grants and anti-gang task forces. Local police chiefs urged policymakers to avoid treating the drop as a sign that the work is finished, noting that staffing shortages remain a problem in many departments.
For the public, the report offers a snapshot of safety that is hard to find anywhere else. Local officials in cities with stubbornly high violence said they still need more federal help, and community groups argued that investment in housing and jobs matters as much as policing. The debate over how to read the numbers is likely to continue through the election season.