Overview

• Violent crime fell 4.5% in 2024 compared to the previous year, marking the second straight annual decrease and pushing rates near their lowest in a decade.
• All violent subcategories recorded declines, with murders down 14.9%, robberies falling 8.9%, rapes dropping 5.2% and aggravated assaults decreasing 3%.
• Property crime offenses fell 8.1%, driven by an 18.6% plunge in motor vehicle thefts and lower burglary and larceny-theft rates, marking the lowest property crime rate since the early 1960s alongside a 1.5% drop in hate crime incidents.
• Assaults on law enforcement officers reached a 10-year high of 85,730 incidents in 2024, and 64 officers were feloniously killed last year, contributing to 258 line-of-duty deaths from 2021 to 2024.
• The report draws on data from 16,675 agencies covering about 86% of the FBI’s program and 95.6% of the U.S. population, but experts caution that unreported crimes and transitional reporting challenges may understate actual crime levels.