U.S. homicide rate rises sharply in 2020, violent crime rate rises

　　Priya Krishnakumar

　　□ Xie Wangyuan compiled

　　Recently, the 2020 Unified Crime Report (UCR) released by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation showed that the number of homicides in the United States has increased by nearly 30% from 2019. This is a record since the agency began tracking these crimes in the 1960s. The largest single-year increase.

　　The report is comparable to the preliminary data released in the summer. The report also shows that between 2019 and 2020, the rate of violent crime has increased by 5%.

But from 2019 to 2020, the overall crime rate reported by the FBI dropped by about 6%.

　　In 2020, there are more than 21,000 homicides reported in the United States.

　　According to data released by the FBI, homicides in 2020 are the highest single-year increase since these crimes were tracked in the 1960s.

　　There were more than 21,500 homicides in 2020, the most in a single year since the mid-1990s.

The murder rate in 2020 is about 6.5 per 100,000, which is about 40% lower than that in the 1980s and 1990s, when homicides in the United States reached its peak.

　　According to the report, the number of homicides in 2020 began to rise in the summer, peaked in June and July, and has remained at a high level since then.

　　The "Unified Crime Report" is the most official and standardized report on crime in the United States, but the data from the "Unified Crime Report" is not a complete picture.

Every year the FBI collects crime statistics from law enforcement agencies across the country to create its annual report, but some agencies do not need to submit their data.

Many agencies did not participate in this activity-in 2020, about 15,875 of more than 18,000 agencies submitted data to the FBI-the participation rate was 85%.

　　There is also a significant lag time between the time when the data is released and the time frame it covers.

The FBI released a complete report nine months after the end of 2020. Although its preliminary report showed a 25% increase in homicides in 2020, several major cities including New York, Chicago and New Orleans did not submit data. .

　　Recently, the FBI changed its reporting system, which may have a negative impact on the amount of data the agency can release in the future.

The 2021 Unified Crime Report will be based on a collection system called the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), which allows agencies to submit detailed information about each crime, including Information about the victim and the relationship between the offender and the victim.

　　However, it is very difficult for agencies to collect and report such detailed data, which may affect the number of participating agencies-fewer than 10,000 agencies will report data in 2020.

　　The FBI began to publish a nationwide quarterly crime report in 2020, but it has not yet done so in the first two quarters of 2021. The authorities require at least 60% of agencies to submit data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System to publish quarterly data.

According to data from the FBI, fewer than 10,000 agencies have reported data from the National Event-Based Reporting System this year, accounting for only 53% of the U.S. population.

　　The shift to a "national event-based reporting system" comes as the rising number of homicides shows that there is a greater need for consistent data collection at the federal level.

　　But the data released by the FBI is related to other independent investigations conducted in large cities across the United States.

The National Criminal Commission, which investigated 34 major cities in the United States, also found that between 2019 and 2020, the number of homicides has risen by about 30%.

　　The increase in homicides seems to stem from the surge in gun violence.

According to the tracking, the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit organization for gun-related violence in the United States, has 39,538 deaths from gun violence in 2019, up to 43,559 in 2020.

From 2019 to 2020, the number of homicides or accidental gun violence deaths increased by nearly 4,000.

According to the Unified Crime Report, about 77% of the homicides reported in 2020 were gun-related, up from 74% in 2019.

Currently, no federal gun sales database has been established, but other independent investigations have found that gun sales have soared during the Covid-19 (new crown pneumonia) pandemic.

　　Although the 2021 Unified Crime Report may not be released until mid-to-late 2022, other organizations that track homicides in major cities believe that there may be more homicides in 2021 than in 2020.

However, the growth rate of homicides does seem to be decreasing.

　　The Criminal Justice Commission's (NCCCJ) report for the first quarter of 2021 found that the homicide rate was lower than the peak in the summer of 2020, but still higher than the first quarter of previous years.

AH Datalytics Consulting Company-The company has tracked homicides in 87 major cities so far this year. Its data shows that between 2020 and 2021, the homicide rate has increased by 10%, which is lower than the 30% increase in 2020.

　　The "Unified Crime Report" and the Criminal Justice Commission's research also found that after nearly 20 years of crime decline in the United States, the overall crime rate will continue to decline in 2020.

The reduction in crime this time includes many forms of property crimes such as robbery, night burglary and theft. Common crimes have dropped significantly during the start of the 2020 new crown pneumonia pandemic.