Are Violent & Illegal Crimes Seeing An Unusual Drop In The U.S.?

For years, public perception has suggested that crime in America is spiraling upward. Long-term national crime data, however, suggests things are getting better. The U.S. is experiencing a sharp decrease across several major offense categories, reaching levels not seen for decades. Data derived from decades of national crime statistics show that crime rates have fallen drastically from their zenith. Violent crime is now less than half of the rates recorded in the early 1990s, and property crime is down 60% over the past 30 years. According to the Council on Criminal Justice’s year-end 2025 analysis, crime didn’t just gradually decline; the pace of improvement became noticeable. 11 of 13 major offense categories saw dramatic drops of 22% in gun assaults and 23% in robberies compared with 2024.
Yet experts are wary that year-to-year crime statistics can be volatile, and short-term drops don’t necessarily imply permanent decline. In January 2021, narcotics and drug violations stood at roughly 86,000 incidents, far exceeding burglary at 56,000 and motor vehicle theft at 50,000, a gap that persisted through much of the period. What makes the recent move notable is the timing: by January 2026, reported incidents across all three categories fall sharply at once, narrowing a spread that had defined the data for years. Regardless, the magnitude of the recent decreases across major crime categories is rare in the history of America. 

The most striking shift appears in the timing of the data itself. After years of elevated and uneven movement across crime categories, reported activity begins to fall in unison toward the end of the period. Rather than declines emerging in isolated areas or specific offenses, the late-stage drop shows broadly, marking a clear break from the patterns that defined earlier years. Moreover, FBI Crime Data figures show that even individual offenses are declining across multiple categories. In January 2026, animal cruelty offenses totaled 58, credit card and ATM fraud offenses stood at 421, and all other larcenies fell to 2,921, down from higher levels recorded throughout earlier in the period. These figures reflect reporting coverage of 19.05% of the U.S. population at the time of release, alongside clearance counts of 20, 18, and 168, respectively.
The pattern suggests crime declines aren’t confined to a single category or moment. On the contrary, it can be seen both in big cities and smaller communities. Yet public perception lags behind the data? Perhaps, the answer may not be present in the rates. But in how they’re experienced on the ground and the narratives around safety which are shaped by politics and media.