While headlines from CBS News and other outlets claim that crime dropped “in every category” in 2024, a closer examination of the FBI’s newly released data shows that such summaries exclude key categories of criminal activity that remain serious or are getting worse.

The FBI’s 2024 Uniform Crime Report (UCR) shows that the violent crime rate — which includes murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault — declined by 4.5% from the previous year. Property crime rates also fell by 8.1%, including decreases in burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft.

However, a review of the complete FBI datasets reveals that the total number of murders increased, with 16,935 people killed in 2024, up from the previous year. This happened even as the murder rate per 100,000 people dropped from 5.7

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