Homicide spiked in big cities during the pandemic. Now it’s plunging
Homicide has dropped by nearly 20 percent in the first half of 2025 across major US cities
- A new study indicates a significant drop in homicides across 30 of the largest US cities, with a nearly 20 percent decline in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period last year.
- Major cities like New York and Philadelphia contributed to this trend, experiencing 16 percent and 13 percent reductions respectively, while Denver, Louisville, and Chicago saw even larger plunges.
- The decline extends beyond homicides, with aggravated assaults, gun assaults, sexual assaults, and robbery also seeing notable decreases, though domestic violence rose by a modest 3 percent.
- This marks a dramatic reversal from the crime spikes observed during the Covid pandemic, which saw one of the highest leaps in killings in U.S. history between 2019 and 2020.
- Despite the promising declines, the Council on Criminal Justice cautions that crime trends can be deceptive, and the underlying drivers are not fully understood, noting that crime concerns have influenced political outcomes and campaign rhetoric.