Crime was a talking point on the presidential campaign trail. But after a spike during the pandemic, murders have been dropping steadily, including in big cities like Chicago and San Francisco.
This is on average, not in every jurisdiction. Here in Seattle, for example, homicides are up. The average dropping is largely based on high-crime cities seeing improvements–not necessarily the country overall.
The report is based on crimes reported to police in 36 cities, though only 29 of them provided data on homicides committed in their jurisdictions.
Based on those 29 cities, the report says homicides dipped 13% in the first half of 2024 compared to the first six months of 2023 and was 2% lower than the same period in 2019, the year before the pandemic began.
Those declines, however, were largely driven by big drops in “high homicide” cities like St. Louis, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, said Ernesto Lopez, a CCJ senior research analyst and co-author of “Crime Trends in the U.S.: Mid-Year 2024 Update.”
Homicides in Baltimore, for example, were 40% lower in the first six months of the year compared to the first half of 2019, while homicides in St. Louis and Philadelphia were down 23% and 19%, respectively, Lopez said. But he said two-thirds of cities in the report’s sample are still experiencing elevated homicide rates, including Seattle, which had 50% more homicides in the first half of 2024 versus the same period in 2019.
This is on average, not in every jurisdiction. Here in Seattle, for example, homicides are up. The average dropping is largely based on high-crime cities seeing improvements–not necessarily the country overall.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/homicides-in-seattle-still-far-higher-than-before-the-pandemic-report-says/