murder rate

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Murder Rate Drops at 'Fastest Pace Ever Recorded'

FBI says it fell 11.3% last year, with smaller drops in other violent crimes

(Newser) - While you wouldn't know it from a lot of campaign rhetoric, violent crime rates are falling in the US, especially the murder rate, according to data released by the FBI this week. The 2023 Crime in the Nation report released Monday found that the murder rate continued its decline...

FBI: Violent Crime Is Down, Property Crime Is Up

Violence has receded to pre-pandemic levels, according to agency's annual reports

(Newser) - Violent crime across the US decreased last year—dropping to about the same level as before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic—but property crimes rose substantially, according to data in the FBI's annual crime report released Monday. The report comes with an asterisk: Some law enforcement agencies failed...

In Most US Cities, Murder Rates Are Falling

But explaining why is tricky, experts say

(Newser) - With some notable exceptions, including Washington, DC, and Memphis, murder rates are dropping in major American cities, though experts aren't entirely sure why. According to the Council on Criminal Justice research group, the homicide rate in 30 of the biggest US cities was down 12% year-on-year in the first...

FBI Says Homicide Rate Soared 30% in 2020

That's the biggest single-year increase on record

(Newser) - Last year was exceptionally deadly in more ways than one. According to the latest statistics from the FBI, the homicide rate soared almost 30% in 2020, the biggest year-on-year increase since the agency started keeping national records in the 1960s, the Hill reports. The overall violent crime rate was up...

In 27 Cities, Homicides Jumped 50% This Summer

Analysts have a list of possibilities for why

(Newser) - Homicides increased 53% this summer in 27 US cities over the same three-month period last year—when there was no pandemic. There was a 14% rise in the number of aggravated assaults in the cities, a new analysis by the Council on Criminal Justice show. But overall, US crime is...

Worrying Pandemic Trend: a Rise in Homicides

'Wall Street Journal' finds the trend in 36 of the largest 50 cities

(Newser) - Chicago has logged 430 homicides so far this year, up 51% from this point last year, reports the Sun-Times . And while Chicago has drawn much of the attention over rising homicides, it's far from alone among big US cities. A Wall Street Journal analysis finds that 36 of the...

Murders in Mexico Surge to Record High

This year has been worse than drug war's peak year

(Newser) - Mexico set a new record for homicides in the first half of the year as the number of murders grew by 5.3% compared to the same period of 2018, fueled partly by cartel and gang violence in several states. Mexico saw 3,080 killings in June, an increase of...

Blip or Trend? Violent Crime Spikes for 2nd Straight Year

Attorney General Sessions says trend cannot continue

(Newser) - Violent crime in America rose for the second straight year in 2016, but it remained near historically low levels, according to FBI data released Monday. The numbers were driven by a spike in killings in some major cities, per the AP . Violent crimes such as shootings and robberies rose 4....

Murdered Ex-Miss Venezuela Had Been Attacked Before

Monica Spear was no stranger to violence, but refused to leave country she loved

(Newser) - A high-profile shooting in Venezuela continues to grab headlines, with the Monday night murder of well-known soap-opera actress and former Miss Venezuela shining a light on the country's rampant violence—as the nation's leader tries to shift the focus. President Nicolas Maduro yesterday tried to paint Monica Spear'...

Detroit Homicides Climb 10%, Above 'Murder Capital' Era

City now the most dangerous of America's 20 most populous

(Newser) - Detroit lived up to its dangerous reputation this year, as its murder rate shot up 10% to 53 per 100,000 residents—making it higher now than it was 40 years ago, when the city was first nicknamed the "Murder Capital," the Detroit News reports. That also made...

DC Milestone: On Track for Fewer Than 100 Murders

It would be first time since 1963

(Newser) - The crack epidemic that began in the 1980s ushered in a wave of bloodletting in the nation's capital and a death toll that ticked upward daily. Dead bodies, sometimes several a night, had homicide detectives hustling between crime scenes and earned Washington unwelcome monikers such as the nation's...

Honduras City Now World's Most Violent

San Pedro Sula becomes murder capital

(Newser) - A surge in drug-related violence has made San Pedro Sula in Honduras the murder capital of the world. Some 1,143 of its 719,447 residents were murdered in 2011, giving it a murder rate of 159 people per 100,000 citizens—even higher than Mexico's Ciudad Juarez, which...

Most Peaceful State: Maine

 Most Peaceful State: Maine 
THEN THERE'S THE SOUTH
Apr 24, 2012 6:57 AM CDT

Most Peaceful State: Maine

Louisiana, Deep South bring up the rear in new survey

(Newser) - Apparently the moose-on-moose violence is next to nil, because Maine has scored the title of most peaceful state in the union, according to a new survey by the Institute for Economics & Peace. It finds the nation as a whole at its most peaceful point in two decades. Louisiana, meanwhile,...

World's Murder Capital Is Honduras, Where Drug Cartels Control Police and Politicians
 The World's 
 Murder Capital Is ... 
interactive map inside
Jan 22, 2012 5:44 PM CST

The World's Murder Capital Is ...

... a country even more dangerous than Mexico or Iraq

(Newser) - Violence in Honduras is so widespread—so steeped in drug cartels and official corruption—that even Mexico and Iraq are safer places to reside. Yes, Honduras boasts the world's worst murder rate: 82.1 murders per 100,000 residents. By comparison, Mexico's is 18.1 and Iraq's...

Peace Corps Exits Honduras
 Peace Corps Exits Honduras 
Jan 17, 2012 7:12 AM CST

Peace Corps Exits Honduras

All 158 volunteers exited violence-plagued country yesterday

(Newser) - For the first time since 1963, there is no longer a Peace Corps presence in Honduras. All 158 volunteers exited the country yesterday, making good on a move announced in late December by the US group. The decision was made for safety reasons, explained the Corps. To wit, Honduras President...

New Orleans' Problem: How to Stop All the Murders

City officials trying new programs, but will they work?

(Newser) - Choose nearly any line from a New York Times article on murders in New Orleans, and it will depress you: By late last month, the city had seen 175 homicides in 2011—the same as the total number for all of the previous year—and there have been eight more...

Rio de Janeiro Racks Up 60K Unsolved Murders

...and that's just in the last 10 years

(Newser) - Looks like we won't be seeing Law & Order: Rio de Janeiro anytime soon. The Brazilian state has racked up 60,000 murders over the last decade that have gone unsolved and unprosecuted. The number came to light as part of a departmental investigation related to a national plan...

New Orleans Again US Murder Capital

(Newser) - New Orleans is once again the US murder capital after briefly losing the title. Fresh FBI statistics show that with 64 killings per 100,000 people in 2008, New Orleans had the highest per-capita murder rate in the country, well ahead of second-place St. Louis, with 47 murders per 100,...

18 Stories