The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released its 2024 Reported Crimes in the Nation report, revealing a notable drop in violent crime across the United States, including a 14.9 percent decline in murder and non-negligent manslaughter compared to 2023.
According to the report, more than 16,000 law enforcement agencies, including state, county, city, university, college, and tribal departments, submitted data to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Programme, covering an estimated 95.6 percent of the total U.S. population.
The statistics were gathered through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the Summary Reporting System.
The FBI stated that in 2024, a violent crime occurred every 25.9 seconds, with a murder taking place every 31.1 minutes and a rape being reported every 4.1 minutes. Despite the frequency, the agency reported an estimated 4.5 percent national decrease in violent crime compared to 2023.
This year’s statistics reflect a continued national effort in curbing violent crime, the FBI noted.
Most notably, murder, robbery, and rape all experienced measurable decreases, indicating the effectiveness of law enforcement strategies and cooperation among communities.
Specifically, the report revealed that murder and non-negligent manslaughter decreased by 14.9 percent, while rape, based on the revised 2013 definition, declined by 5.2 percent. Aggravated assault dropped by 3.0 percent, and robbery cases fell by 8.9 percent across the country.
The FBI also released its 2024 Hate Crime Statistics, showing that 16,419 agencies participated in reporting bias-motivated crimes, covering 95.1 percent of the U.S. population.
These agencies submitted reports of 11,679 criminal incidents and 13,683 related offenses. The offenses were motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity.
In a comparative dataset of agencies that submitted at least six consistent months of hate crime data in both 2023 and 2024, the FBI found that reported hate crime incidents decreased by 1.5 percent, dropping from 11,041 incidents in 2023 to 10,873 in 2024.
To ensure consistency and reliability in year-to-year comparisons, the UCR Program only included data from agencies that met minimum reporting thresholds, the agency explained.
The 2024 report also marks a critical change in methodology. For the first time, the FBI’s violent crime estimates for the years 2013 through 2024 are based entirely on the revised rape definition adopted in 2013, which includes a broader range of sexual assault scenarios beyond the legacy definition.
The agency had previously maintained two datasets to preserve historical consistency but has now streamlined its approach. Beginning in 2017, the legacy definition was phased out, and the 2024 report completes the transition.
The change reflects an evolving understanding of sexual violence and ensures a more inclusive count of victims, the FBI stated.
The Reported Crimes in the Nation report is comprised of five sections: Crime in the United States, NIBRS, Hate Crime Statistics, the Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) assault tables, and the UCR Summary of Reported Crimes in the Nation.
