{"id":9160,"date":"2026-08-15T11:04:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T11:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160"},"modified":"2026-08-15T11:04:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T11:04:44","slug":"killings-and-other-violent-crimes-dropped-sharply-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160","title":{"rendered":"Killings and other violent crimes dropped sharply in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

The White House credited a \u201cTrump effect\u201d for the decline, but data released by the FBI shows crime was falling well before the president took office again.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more Democrats abandon deep-red state Senate races, boosting independents<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
President Donald Trump departs after speaking at the David S. Mack Center for Training and Intelligence in Garden City, New York, on Friday. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Violent crime and murder rates across the United States fell sharply between 2024 and 2025, according to FBI data<\/a>, the largest year-to-year decrease since the federal government began tracking nationwide crime rates in 1936.<\/p>\n

The 2025 murder rate of 4.1 killings per 100,000 residents is the lowest the country has seen since the mid-1950s, the agency said.<\/p>\n

The FBI released those figures<\/a> Friday as part of its annual national crime statistics analysis, known as the Uniform Crime Report, which amasses data from more than 17,000 law enforcement agencies across the country to paint a holistic picture of public safety trends in the U.S.<\/p>\n

The unveiling of this year\u2019s report, though, was unconventional. Instead of the announcement originating from the FBI or the Justice Department, it came from President Donald Trump, who broke the news during a visit to the New York police academy on Long Island on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, I\u2019m thrilled to announce that the FBI has just released the new Uniform Crime Report, showing that in 2025 we achieved the single largest reduction in violent crime in American history,\u201d Trump said to applause. \u201cTogether, we\u2019re showing what is possible when you finally have a president in the White House who supports our police, who lets you do your jobs, and who always backs the blue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many criminal justice experts take issue with that analysis, at least in part, since violent crime began falling well before Trump took office.<\/p>\n

FBI Director Kash Patel and newly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche joined Trump, who was visiting <\/b>Long Island to campaign for Bruce Blakeman, New York\u2019s Republican gubernatorial candidate and the current Nassau county executive.<\/p>\n

The arrival of the FBI\u2019s annual crime report came about a year since the Trump administration began ramping up his tough-on-crime messaging and deploying troops to some of America\u2019s streets \u2014 sending the National Guard, dispatching federal task forces, increasing immigration enforcement and taking temporary control of the D.C. police department.<\/p>\n

The president has credited those decisions for the crime declines in 2025, which include an 18.1 percent drop in murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, an 18.5 percent drop in robberies, and a 12.4 percent drop on property crimes, according to the FBI report. The White House has touted it as the \u201cTrump effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the FBI\u2019s data shows that, after a spike during the coronavirus pandemic, nationwide violent crime began plummeting in 2023 when President Joe Biden was still in office. By January 2025, when Trump returned to the White House for his second term, homicides had already fallen significantly.<\/p>\n

That trend continued throughout 2025, according to the FBI figures and other independent analysis by various policing and criminal justice policy organizations. Criminologists and law enforcement experts broadly agree that it is difficult to assign credit \u2014 or blame \u2014 for the ebbs and flows of national crime rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cLots of places are having historic decreases right now,\u201d said crime data analyst Jeff Asher. \u201cAnd the feds aren\u2019t everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

An accurate understanding of the numbers is critical, experts said, so that police and policymakers can operate from a shared set of facts when making choices about public safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a saying: \u2018There\u2019s lies, there\u2019s damn lies, and there\u2019s statistics,\u2019\u201d said Matthew Cavedon, director of the Cato Institute\u2019s Project on Criminal Justice. \u201cThe numbers don\u2019t tell you the human story. They can tell you correlation all day long, but they aren\u2019t going to tell you causation. It\u2019s a tricky one.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Who will make the Commanders\u2019 roster? Here\u2019s the outlook with preseason underway.<\/a><\/p>\n

Those who study crime trends tend to avoid drawing conclusions based on a one- or two-year change in the data, Cavedon said, because the fuller story plays out over decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs with every edition with these kind of reports, the feeding frenzy begins to take credit,\u201d Cavedon said. \u201cEverybody wants to be able to go to the public and the voters and say, \u2018This is exactly what did it.\u2019 It\u2019s a bit of a fool\u2019s errand to even try.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House public safety narrative, he said, deserves skepticism, especially the claim that U.S. cities were out of control until Trump deployed the National Guard and began deporting undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s too simple of a story,\u201d Cavedon said, pointing to Canada, where crime rates have also been dropping but where U.S. law enforcement policy is irrelevant.<\/p>\n

After the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank, released its semiannual crime report last month, Executive Director Adam Gelb said the consistency of the downward trend nationwide means that \u201cmacro-level forces are playing a major role.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing changes in criminal justice policy and strategy, advances in technology and surveillance, and broad shifts in society and culture, all happening at the same time,\u201d Gelb said last month. \u201cCrime is falling across too many different kinds of cities to credit any one policy, party or program.\u201d<\/p>\n

That analysis has not deterred Trump in recent weeks from claiming credit \u2014 especially for declines in D.C., where he declared a crime emergency last August.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll tell you, because D.C. is very personal for me \u2026 it was so bad when I got there a year and a half ago,\u201d Trump said in Long Island. \u201cCan you imagine our nation\u2019s capital? One of the most dangerous cities in the country. We\u2019ve taken it to one of the safest cities of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump said that crime in the District had dropped by 81 percent, but in recent appearances with reporters he has also referred to drops of 88 or 92 percent. When asked to clarify Trump\u2019s remarks about D.C. crime drops, White House officials pointed to arson incidents, which dropped from four in 2025 to one in 2026.<\/p>\n

The White House also cited the District\u2019s homicide rate, which has fallen significantly in recent years, but not by the rates cited by Trump.<\/p>\n

At Friday\u2019s rally in Long Island, the law enforcement facility had been transformed into a MAGA rally filled with hundreds of his supporters. A pair of police cars were parked inside the building under a \u201cthin blue line\u201d flag. Trump spoke from beneath a \u201cMaking America Safe Again\u201d banner, flanked by law enforcement officials in uniform who stood behind him on risers.<\/p>\n

He praised the work of Patel and Blanche and pledged to continue pumping federal tax dollars into police departments and law enforcement efforts nationwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there anybody that\u2019s in favor of defunding the police in this particular room?\u201d Trump said.<\/p>

Read more Trump stumps in N.Y. suburbs, highlighting a dilemma for his party<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNo!\u201d the crowd yelled in unison.<\/p>\n

Ben Conarck and Cat Zakrzewski contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The White House is seizing on new statistics showing that violent crime plummeted last year to boast of a \u201cTrump effect.\u201d But experts note crime began falling well before Trump returned to office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nKillings and other violent crimes dropped sharply in 2025 - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Killings and other violent crimes dropped sharply in 2025 - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The White House is seizing on new statistics showing that violent crime plummeted last year to boast of a \u201cTrump effect.\u201d But experts note crime began falling well before Trump returned to office.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-15T11:04:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/88a666a91fbdd9fb3a4f2b43495c00c4-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=9160#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=9160\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"Killings and other violent crimes dropped sharply in 2025\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-15T11:04:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=9160\"},\"wordCount\":1186,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=9160#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/c38cf5252c9502e18ecacc3b2e2a70f6-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=9160#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=9160\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=9160\",\"name\":\"Killings and other violent crimes dropped sharply in 2025 - Moving Insider USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=9160#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=9160#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/c38cf5252c9502e18ecacc3b2e2a70f6-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-15T11:04:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=9160#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=9160\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=9160#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/c38cf5252c9502e18ecacc3b2e2a70f6-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/c38cf5252c9502e18ecacc3b2e2a70f6-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=9160#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Killings and other violent crimes dropped sharply in 2025\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Moving Insider USA\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Killings and other violent crimes dropped sharply in 2025 - Moving Insider USA","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Killings and other violent crimes dropped sharply in 2025 - Moving Insider USA","og_description":"The White House is seizing on new statistics showing that violent crime plummeted last year to boast of a \u201cTrump effect.\u201d But experts note crime began falling well before Trump returned to office.","og_url":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160","og_site_name":"Moving Insider USA","article_published_time":"2026-08-15T11:04:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1707,"url":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/88a666a91fbdd9fb3a4f2b43495c00c4-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/#\/schema\/person\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03"},"headline":"Killings and other violent crimes dropped sharply in 2025","datePublished":"2026-08-15T11:04:44+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160"},"wordCount":1186,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/c38cf5252c9502e18ecacc3b2e2a70f6-scaled.jpg","articleSection":["Interesting"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160","url":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160","name":"Killings and other violent crimes dropped sharply in 2025 - Moving Insider USA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/c38cf5252c9502e18ecacc3b2e2a70f6-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2026-08-15T11:04:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/#\/schema\/person\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/c38cf5252c9502e18ecacc3b2e2a70f6-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/c38cf5252c9502e18ecacc3b2e2a70f6-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1707},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Killings and other violent crimes dropped sharply in 2025"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/","name":"Moving Insider USA","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/#\/schema\/person\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com"],"url":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}