Meg Anderson

Crime analysts point to the instability of the pandemic for that increase.

There were fewer police patrolling.

Many people lost their jobs.

Some government services like mental health care and community centers went away for a while.

John Roman with NORC, a research group at the University of Chicago, says it's helpful to think of violence as an epidemic.

More crime leads to more crime and less leads to less.

Meg Anderson, NPR News.

Part of the reason why murders are way down is sort of a like what goes up must come down situation.

The huge decreases we're seeing now were preceded by huge increases.

So in 2020, 2021, homicide rates surged across the country at historic rates.

And it's rarely just one thing that causes crime to rise or fall.

But the pandemic was a huge destabilizing event in the world and obviously also in the country.

It's from this firm, A.H.

Datalytics.

They use data from nearly 600 jurisdictions around the country.

Crime is down.

by a lot in pretty much every category, according to them.

So murders are down by around 20% this year.

Violent crime in general, things like rape, robbery, aggravated assault are also down.

And property crimes are down too, including burglaries and motor vehicle theft.