Crime and murder rates are decreased in the country, especially in the five best major American cities such as Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Vinix. Several municipalities have witnessed significant discounts in violent crimes, with some two figures reports in murders compared to previous years.
New York witnessed a decrease of approximately 3 percent in the total crime of the index in 2024, with 3662 less accidents. Crimes decreased by 11 percent in 2023. Los Angeles witnessed a 16 % decrease in murders in 2023 and reported a decrease in violent crimes in general. Houston, the fourth largest American city, reported a significant decrease in murders in 2023, while the fifth larger, Phoenix, claimed a 4 percent decrease in the total crime and a significant decrease in murders in 2024.
Although systematic racism throughout the city, Chicago boasted by a 13 percent reduction in murders in 2023. City officials' position increased investment in treating mental health and enhancing law enforcement strategies as contributors to this decrease.
The city and the boycott have increased its investments in violent prevention programs, as Chicago has more than $ 100 million in the 2025 budget for societal violence initiatives. This funding supports a set of programs aimed at reducing armed violence, including street awareness, bruising care, youth development, and employment initiatives.
The Chicago Police Department's budget also increased from $ 1.94 billion in the fiscal year 2023 to $ 2.1 billion in 2025, reflecting an increase of about $ 160 million or an increase of 8.2 percent in two years. When consistent with additional employment expenditures such as pensions, health care benefits, additional work, legal settlements, and other indirect costs, the total police spending in Chicago for 2025 may approach 3.8 billion dollars, according to the online portal in the city.
Cook Province allocated more than $ 100 million in the 2015 fiscal year to prevent violence and address the root causes of the crime. The province has set $ 103.1 million for its stock box, which supports various initiatives aimed at addressing structural inequality. This includes financing grants to prevent armed violence, residing returns programs, and developing societal violence strategies (CVI) in cooperation with state and city partners.
The Consultative Council of Justice received $ 20 million to support community organizations that focus on preventing violence and restorative justice and re -entering. This financing aims to enable local groups that work directly with the population at risk, and $ 15 million has been allocated to expand behavioral health services, including crises intervention. Other $ 10 million has been appointed for youth -focused initiatives, such as post -school programs, guidance, and work training, to provide positive alternatives and reduce youth participation in criminal activities.
In the budget for the fiscal year in Illinois 2025, more than $ 300 million was allocated to crime prevention and violence reduction, such as the recovery, investment and renewal program (R3), which received 200 million dollars to finance community organizations in areas that were not affected by violence and corruption; An additional amount of $ 4 million is allocated to grant capacity building at the state level to enhance the effectiveness of violence prevention programs.
Under the General Safety Law at Ramagine, the state invested $ 150 million in financing to reduce firearms violence, with more than $ 50 million allocated specifically to CVI services in Chicago. Special and charitable organizations also contributed to these efforts. Civil and commercial groups pledged $ 100 million to finance anti -violence investments and renew their commitment to supporting community programs.
New York and Los Angeles has taken similar approaches to reduce crime. Governor Cathe Hutchoul announced this year an additional $ 20.7 million of government funding to support awareness programs on SNG Street in 14 community in New York State. These programs are employed working in the field of awareness and cases of cases to involve individuals at risk of armed violence, with the aim of changing behavior and increasing opportunities. Ruler's budget is 2025 $ 347 million to continue New York efforts to reduce and prevent armed violence.
Los Angeles launched a community safety partnership (CPS), a program that enhances cooperation between members of society and law enforcement to build confidence and reduce crime. By integrating gang and preventive intervention specialists, CSP contributed to major discounts to violent crimes in the participating neighborhoods, according to the city's website. The recommended budget in the Los Angeles Province includes 2025-26 287.7 million dollars for the initiative of investment in the First and Community Care, with the total available funding of $ 571.6 million, including the funds not heading from previous years.
The California state budget provides 2024-25 $ 17.8 billion from the General Fund for Judicial and Criminal Justice Programs, including support for programs and capital expenses.
The researchers at the Brennan Center for Justice examined the directions of national crime. Their analyzes indicate that violent crime, including murders, has decreased since 2021, with significant declines in 2023. It attributes this reduction to multiple factors, such as community violence income programs, increased general investment in social services, demographic transformations, and enhancing data -based police practices.
Last March, a televised report from WTTW News highlighted that although the crime is generally decreased in the country, the Chicago murders do not decrease at the speed in New York and Los Angeles.
According to the Crime Laboratory at the University of Chicago, the black population “is still not proportional to armed violence, as it was likely to kill them 22 times compared to the white population”, noticed the research group at the end of 2024.
“Chicago's murders continued, and uninterrupted shooting from its last peak in 2020 and 2021. Despite these encouraging trends, Chicago continues to deal with inequality associated with race and geography, in addition to increasing crimes of violence over the total,” wrote the crime laboratory in “End of the year 2024: Trigo.”
“While violent crime has decreased from last year, it is still higher than an average of 5 years. The main contributors to this upward trend are strict attacks, strict batteries and theft (except for leadership),” the laboratory.
It should be noted that murders across the country witnessed a historical decrease in 2023, which represents the largest decrease in one year in two decades. In the first quarter of 2025, Chicago recorded 96 murders, more than 15 percent of the same period in the previous year.
The latest Universal CRIME report at the FBI (UCR) indicates that violent crime and property crime also decreased in 2023. Due to the lack of a federal law that requires local police agencies to provide data to the Federal Reserve, it is considered a system for preparing voluntary reports.
However, the federal government also tracks an uncomfortable crime through the National Crime Survey (NCVS). The American Justice Statistics Office (BJS) estimates the number of unpaid crimes by conducting an interview with approximately 90 families (or 200,000 people at the age of 12 and above) to determine the percentage of violent crimes and property crimes that have not been reported to the police for various reasons.
The cases of rape, domestic violence and other violent attacks may be reported due to the victim's fear, and the lack of confidence in the court’s system to provide justice and documented historical and social factors. Many black and Latin societies have seen racial stereotypes, police brutality, and excessive communication. On the other hand, these same societies often reach slow police, indifference in cases of sexual assault or domestic violence, or fear of escalation, harm or death for themselves or in their families.
Latinists may also fear not documented, Caribbeans, or African citizens, that contact enforcement may lead to the participation or deportation of ice, even if they are victims of crime, according to the Urban Institute.
Prisons and prisons
Regarding prison rates, BJS indicated that in 2023, local prisons included 664,200 people, similar to the middle number of 663100 in 2022. This represents a 9 percent decrease from the inmate population of 731200 ten years ago.
In February, the IDOC Ministry of Reform informed the total number of prisoners of 26,580 individuals. This number is a significant decrease from the state's peak imprisonment numbers, which represents the lowest level in nearly three decades. The capacity of the state prisoner is an operational capacity of 35,786, indicating a vacant rate of about 26 percent.
Cook County Prison includes 5,674 individuals in detention, according to the Cook Sharif County Office, which represents a significant decrease over the past three years. In January 2024, the average daily population of the prison was about 4675, a decrease of 58 percent from the peak of the population of 11248 in September 2013
The reduction in prison and prison population is in line with wider criminal justice reforms in Illinois, including the implementation of the Equity Law before the trial in September 2023, which canceled the cash guarantee and imposed a tougher border on the detention before the trial.
On the national level, the prison rate reached 198 people per 100,000 American population, a 14 percent decrease from 231 prisoners per prison for every 100,000 time. From July 2022 to June 2023, local prisons recorded 7.6 million acceptance. While this represents an increase of 4 percent of 7.3 million acceptance in the previous year, the annual acceptance was 35 percent less than a decade, when the total acceptance reached 11.7 million.
