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WASHINGTON D.C. (WSAU) – The Federal Bureau of Investigation has updated its recent crime data reports that initially showed that violent crime rates in the U.S. had dropped after it was revealed that thousands of violent crimes had not been added to the total.
According to Real Clear Investigations, the FBI originally released the “final” crime data for 2022 in September 2023, which showed that violent crime in the U.S. fell by 2.1%. This data has been used by political candidates such as Vice President Harris in September to demonstrate to voters that she and President Biden’s administration have been tough on crime over the last four years. However, the bureau’s announcement on Wednesday added previously missed crimes to the report; violent crime increased in 2022 by 4.5%, as the latest numbers for 2022 show that there were 80,029 more violent crimes than in 2021. There were also 1,699 murders, 7,780 rapes, 33,459 robberies, and 37,091 violent assaults added.
“Today’s new data submitted to the FBI confirms that our dedicated efforts and collaborative partnerships with law enforcement are working; Americans are safer now than when we took office. Last year, we saw the largest ever one-year decrease in the homicide rate, which now stands 16 percent below its 2020 level. Violent crime is at a near 50-year low. Our progress is continuing this year and builds on substantial decreases during the previous years of our administration,” the White House claimed in a statement in September.
RCI spoke to William & Mary crime professor Carl Moody about the updated report, who said, “I have checked the data on total violent crime from 2004 to 2022. 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.”
Recent polling data gathered by Gallup indicates that crime is tied with abortion as the second most important reason to vote in November’s election. Additionally, for the first time since 2016, most respondents to a 2022 Gallup poll expressed concern about crime, with the majority saying they worry about it a “great deal.” A May Pew Research poll also found that 81% of Black registered voters said violent crime was very important to their midterm vote, and roughly six out of ten (61%) expressed the same sentiment when choosing who to vote for in this year’s congressional elections.
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