Despite what you may hear, crime continues to plague far too many American communities, leaving citizens understandably concerned about public safety and the well-being of their families.
You might not realize this if you only follow the mainstream media, which this past week essentially declared our nation's public safety crisis over, touting Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) data showing a significant drop in crime rates nationwide.
While any decrease in crime is certainly welcome, the FBI's data falls woefully short of providing a complete picture of crime and public safety in America. Let me explain.
The data heralded by the media comes from the FBI's Uniform Crime Report(UCR), which for nearly a century has been one of the key benchmarks for understanding and interpreting public safety in America. This system is a repository of crime data voluntarily submitted by participating law enforcement agencies across the country.
While useful and informative, it can be limited by the number of agencies that actually submit their data – a problem that was worsened in 2021 by a transition from the old reporting methods to a new, more comprehensive system called the National Incident-Based Reporting System.
When the reporting mechanisms switched, thousands of previously reporting agencies failed to adapt to the change, leaving large portions of nationwide crime data unaccounted for. Some of the nation’s largest and most violent cities, like New York and Los Angeles, weren't prepared for the switch, and the absence of their crime statistics undoubtedly skewed the overall findings.
Though many agencies have made the necessary adjustments to submit their data to the FBI since the changes took effect in 2021, far too many still have not.
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Adding to the limitations of the UCR data is the fact that it only reflects crimes reported to the police, not all crimes that have been committed. Sadly, for many Americans, reporting crimes often feels like a dead end, especially when they believe perpetrators will never be held accountable by a criminal justice system that increasingly adopts soft-on-crime policies like cashless bail and early release programs.
In an effort to better understand the true nature of crime in society and address the limitations of the FBI’s reporting systems, the Department of Justice began conducting the National Crime Victimization Survey in 1973. Instead of relying solely on crime data reported to the police, this surveys nearly a quarter million people each year to gain a clearer picture of the scope and extent of criminal activity, both reported and unreported to the police.
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Unlike the recent FBI findings, the 2023 survey presents a more sobering view of crime in America. It revealed that the rate of violent victimization—a category that includes rape, robbery and aggravated assault – among people 12 or older remained virtually unchanged from 2022.
It also found that less than half of robbery victims reported their victimizations to the police last year, a statistic that reflects a public weary of crime and disheartened by a criminal justice system that too often appears to prioritize the needs of criminals over those of victims.
Undoubtedly, over any given time, some cities will see crime rates rise while others may see them fall, but as a nation, we are far less safe than we were just a few years ago. Crime, particularly in urban centers, remains significantly higher than it was before 2020 and the rise of the defund-the-police movement.
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to stay this way. By renewing our commitment to supporting law enforcement and demanding that criminal justice leaders return to traditional law-and-order policies that hold offenders accountable, we can begin to truly restore safety and security in our communities.
While one study may suggest that our national crime crisis is abating, this doesn't change the reality facing many Americans in their own communities, where violence and lawlessness continue to impact daily life. Statistics alone cannot capture the lived experiences of those still grappling with persistently high crime in their neighborhoods.
