Report: Murders Rise 16% Across Major U.S. Cities in 2021

Murder has increased 16 percent across major U.S. cities during the first half of 2021 when compared to the same period in 2020, and by 42 percent when compared to 2019, according to a Thursday update to the Council on Criminal Justice’s (CCJ) pandemic crime report.

There were 259 more homicides in the first half of 2021 when compared to the first half of 2020, and 548 more when compared to the first half of 2019, the study finds.

“This report updates our previous studies of crime changes during the COVID-19 pandemic, extending the data through the first half (January-June) of 2021,” the CCJ explains.

Recent Council reports found a 30% surge in murders in major U.S. cities in 2020 compared to the previous year, and a 16% increase for the first half of 2021. Gun assaults (+5) and aggravated assaults (+9) were also up over the first half of 2020. https://t.co/HlqPxeXy7N 1/2

— Council on Criminal Justice (@CouncilonCJ) July 30, 2021

The CCJ noted that the crime data was obtained from online portals of city police departments, which have provided weekly updates. From there, offense counts were converted to weekly crime rates per 100,000 city residents for analysis.

The 29 cities examined in the current study range from Norfolk, Virginia — the smallest city, with 245,000 residents — to Los Angeles, California — the largest city in the sample, with 3.97 million residents. – READ MORE