A newly released study by the Council on Criminal Justice found that reported homicides in the 35 cities surveyed were 21% lower in 2025 than in 2024. There were 922 fewer murders in these cities than the year before. This decline marks the largest one-year drop on record and brings murders to their lowest levels since 1900.
According to CCJ:
When nationwide data for jurisdictions of all sizes is reported by the FBI later this year, there is a strong possibility that homicides in 2025 will drop to about 4.0 per 100,000 residents. That would be the lowest rate ever recorded in law enforcement or public health data going back to 1900, and would mark the largest single-year percentage drop in the homicide rate on record.
The good news didn’t stop there. Of the 13 crime categories tracked by CCJ, 11 showed year-over-year declines, including nine that fell by 10% or more.
There were 9% fewer reported aggravated assaults, 22% fewer gun assaults, and 2% fewer domestic violence incidents last year than in 2024. Robbery fell by 23% while carjackings (a type of robbery) decreased by 43%.
Bucking the trend, however, were drug crimes, which increased by 7%, and sexual assaults, which were unchanged.
Crime in the U.S. reached its highest level in 2021. CCJ reports that the average homicide rate was 18.6 per 100,000. In 2025, the rate was 10.4, down 44%.
The pandemic helped drive the sharp increase in violent crime in 2020 and 2021. The disruption caused by the lockdowns, business closures, job losses, economic uncertainty, and school closures put a strain on people everywhere.
But the pandemic alone does not explain the crime uptick. Following the death of George Floyd in May 2020, progressive activists and political leaders embraced the “defund the police” movement, leading many jurisdictions to cut police budgets or scale back funding growth. During this period, police officers faced intense public hostility, declining morale, and staffing losses, while many departments reduced proactive enforcement. This combination of diminished resources, weakened morale, and a pullback in policing contributed to the surge in violent crime that followed.
I would argue that softness on crime played a significant role in the surge of violence. In recent years, many jurisdictions adopted policies that reduced penalties, limited pretrial detention, and deprioritized enforcement of certain offenses in the name of reform. These changes weakened deterrence and signaled a reduced willingness to hold repeat offenders accountable. This permissive environment emboldened criminals and contributed to rising crime rates.
The pandemic receded, and society reopened, the “defund the police” movement lost much of its initial momentum, and crime rates began to slow. Yet persistent softness on crime in many liberal jurisdictions remained a serious problem — one that many on the left are unwilling to acknowledge or confront.
President Donald Trump distinguished himself by his willingness to confront issues others avoided. While most politicians have lowered their expectations about solving America’s crime problem, Trump made public safety a priority and refused to retreat from controversial but necessary debates. He took political risks, backed law enforcement, and framed crime as a failure of leadership rather than an inevitable social condition.
CCJ’s new study, along with others like it, suggests that Trump’s crackdown on crime is working. The White House, for its part, was more than happy to take a victory lap when the numbers were released.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt touted the new report on social media. She wrote: “President Trump promised to bring back Law and Order to the United States of America. This is what happens when you have a President who fully mobilizes federal law enforcement to arrest violent criminals and the worst of the worst illegal aliens. Promise Made. Promise Kept.”
Later, she posted a White House news release titled, “ICYMI: Murder Rate Plunges to 125-Year Low as President Trump Restores Law and Order.”
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY