FBI: Record surge in 2020 murders; nearly 30% increase drives spike in violent crime
The FBI reported a nearly 30% increase in murders in 2020, the largest single-year jump since the bureau began recording crime statistics six decades ago.
The surge in killings drove an overall 5% increase in violent crime last year, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report.
Violence stalked most major cities, the report found, even as the coronavirus pandemic exacted its own deadly toll across the country.
The numbers appeared to closely track preliminary data released early this year by the FBI, which showed that murders had spiked by more than 20% in 2020.
Although the reported annual increase was dramatic, the total number of homicides last year – 21,570 – did not surpass some stunning totals in the early 1990s, including the nearly 25,000 murders recorded in 1991.
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The numbers are also an incomplete assessment, because 15,897 of the eligible 18,619 law enforcement agencies submitted data to the FBI last year.
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James Alan Fox, a professor of criminology at Northeastern University who analyzes data on violent crime, called last year an “aberration” and perhaps not indicative of a longer-term trend.