Report tracks declines in 9 of 13 crime categories
The Council on Criminal Justice, an independent criminal-justice think tank, released the report Thursday based on data collected from 30 American cities. It found an 18% decrease in the homicide rate from 2025 to the same period in 2026, representing approximately 215 fewer homicides in the cities that provided data.
In addition to homicides, the report recorded declines in carjackings, residential burglary and aggravated assaults. Four categories showed small increases: shoplifting, domestic violence incidents, sexual assaults and drug offenses, the report said.
Should the trend continue through the remainder of the year, the report said, it would push the annual homicide rate to the lowest levels in more than a century once final numbers are released at year’s end.
Experts cited in the report described the broadly positive changes as exceeding expectations, improving on baseline crime rates from before 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, which the report said brought historic surges in violence.