Violent crime fell by 3 percent nationwide last year, according to FBI data released on Monday. That includes substantial drops in murder and rape (11.6 percent and 9.4 percent, respectively), along with smaller decreases in aggravated assault (2.8 percent) and robbery (0.3 percent). The FBI is also reporting an overall 2.4 percent drop in property crime, although it says car thefts were up by 12.6 percent.
These numbers further undermine former President Donald Trump's claim that crime is on the rise across the country—a trend that the Republican presidential nominee blames on the Biden administration and, by extension, his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. In particular, Trump's assertion that "homicides are skyrocketing" is plainly inconsistent not only with the FBI's numbers but also with data from several other sources based on various samples of cities.
