Just three weeks before the 2024 elections and following the final presidential debates, the FBI has updated its crime statistics, revealing a significant shift in the narrative surrounding crime rates. Initially, it was reported that crime had decreased by 2.1% in 2022, but the revised data now indicates a 4.5% increase.
This adjustment arrives at a critical time, as the topic of violent crime has been central to political discourse throughout the election cycle. (For months, Democratic candidates have emphasized that violent crime is down.) Fact-checkers and news outlets have frequently pushed back against Republican claims of rising crime, often citing the earlier data.
Violent Crime Increases in 2022
The revised statistics show a notable uptick in violent crime, with an additional 80,029 violent incidents reported in 2022 compared to the previous year. This increase includes:
-1,699 murders
-7,780 rapes
-33,459 robberies
-37,091 aggravated assaults
These numbers provide a stark contrast to earlier claims of decreasing crime, as RealClearInvestigations’ John Lott reports:
The Bureau – which has been at the center of partisan storms – made no mention of these revisions in its September 2024 press release.
RCI discovered the change through a cryptic reference on the FBI website that states: “The 2022 violent crime rate has been updated for inclusion in CIUS, 2023.” But there is no mention that the numbers increased. One only sees the change by downloading the FBI’s new crime data and comparing it to the file released last year.
After the FBI released its new crime data in September, a USA Today headline read: “Violent crime dropped for third straight year in 2023, including murder and rape.”
It’s been over three weeks since the FBI released the revised data. The Bureau’s lack of acknowledgment or explanation about the significant change concerns researchers.
“I have checked the data on total violent crime from 2004 to 2022,” College of William & Mary professor Carl Moody told RCI. “There were no revisions from 2004 to 2015, and from 2016 to 2020, there were small changes of less than one percentage point. The huge changes in 2021 and 2022, especially without an explanation, make it difficult to trust the FBI data.”
The FBI did not respond to RCI’s request for comment.
Unreported Crime Remains a Challenge
While the FBI’s updated statistics paint a troubling picture, the real scope of crime in the U.S. could be even larger. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, a significant portion of crimes go unreported. Only about 45% of violent crimes and 30% of property crimes are reported to the police, leaving a substantial gap in understanding the full scale of crime.
The timing of this revision, so close to the election, adds another layer of contention to the already heated debate over public safety in America.
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So what else is new? Democrats always give false reports that then have to be corrected. TRUMP/VANCE 2024
I agree 100% with your comment. TRUMP/VANCE 2024, Then VANCE 2028 (he has proven himself a true World Leader).
They must know something we don’t understand like the Democrats are LOSING! When Trump takes office, there will be a major cleansing of the Government Divisions including the corrupt FBI. I don’t trust any of them from the DOJ to the CIA considering what has transpired in the last four years. Personally, if I had anything to say about this, I would give every Registered Democrat a one-way ticket to Kabul, Afghanistan, or the Gaza Strip, their choice!
To rerun 2020