Overview
- The Council on Criminal Justice's mid‑year report, released Thursday, found an 18% drop in homicides across 30 U.S. cities in the first half of 2026 versus the same period in 2025, equal to about 215 fewer killings.
- The study measured 13 crime types and recorded declines in nine categories, with big drops in carjackings, residential burglaries and aggravated assaults.
- Researchers reported a 23% fall in the lethality of serious violent crime, meaning a smaller share of violent incidents resulted in death.
- The trend is uneven: roughly a third of sampled cities saw increases in killings and places such as Norfolk and San Francisco recorded sharp year‑over‑year rises, and some city and category totals vary because of reporting differences.
- Experts cautioned against single‑cause explanations and called for more city‑level research to test likely contributors such as an aging population, shifts in drug markets, new policing technology and post‑pandemic social funding.