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News > U.S.

FBI Reports Murder Rate in the US Increased 30% in 2020

  • FBI file photo

    FBI file photo | Photo: Twitter/@CNN

Published 28 September 2021
Opinion

An FBI crime report indicates that extreme violence occurs in most major cities.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that murders in 2020 in the country increased almost 30% over the previous year, the most significant jump in 12 months since the agency began recording statistics on this kind of crime six decades ago.

The report, which is on par with preliminary figures reported over the summer, also shows a 5% increase in violent crime between 2019 and 2020.

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According to the report, violence stalks most major cities, even as the coronavirus pandemic took its own deadly toll across the country.

Although the reported annual increase was dramatic, the total number of homicides last year (21,570) did not surpass some staggering totals in the early 1990s, including the nearly 25,000 murders recorded in 1991.

According to the report, the number of homicides last year began to climb during the summer months, peaking in June and July and remaining at high levels after that.

Each year, the FBI collects crime statistics from law enforcement agencies across the country to create its annual report, but agencies are not required to submit their data.

Many agencies do not participate: in 2020, about 15,875 agencies out of more than 18,000 submitted their data to the FBI, a participation rate of 85%.

Regarding the country's major cities, in New York, there were 500 murders in 2020 compared to 319 in 2019, although these figures are far from the worst year for the city, 1990 when more than 2,200 were counted.

Chicago had 771 murders in 2020 compared to 500 the previous year. Its worst year was 1992 when there were 939 such crimes.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles had 351 murders last year, compared with 258 in 2019. The highest number of murders in this city was in 1980, when there were 1,100.

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