Murders across the United States rose nearly 15% in the first six months of 2020, while violent and property crimes dropped as the country reeled from the coronavirus pandemic, according to new federal government data.
An FBI analysis of more than 12,000 of the total 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide found murders and non-negligent manslaughter offenses increased 14.8% from January through June compared to the same period last year. The report also found that crimes committed against people and property went down, possibly as a result of city and state orders that limited the public’s ability to go outside, and thus crimes of opportunity.
Michael Lawlor, a criminal justice professor at the University of New Haven in Connecticut who previously worked in law enforcement, described the trends as an “anomaly.”
“It’s not unprecedented, but it’s very unusual,” said Lawlor. “It’s really interesting, especially in context of politics. In general, what you see is a downward trend in violent crime — the only exception being shootings and murders.”
Crime analysts Jeff Asher and Ben Horwitz documented only four years over the past six decades that murder rates went up and violent crime went down nationwide, calling such a trend “almost unheard of.”
Violent crimes, such as rape or robbery, decreased approximately 18% and 7%, respectively, while aggravated assaults rose nearly 5%.
Rafael Mangual, J.D., deputy director of legal policy for the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute think tank, told the Washington Examiner that the decline in burglaries and robberies was expected because there were “fewer vulnerable targets” in the first six months of the year due to people going out less, leaving “fewer targets on the street, fewer businesses open, fewer opportunities to rob those businesses.”
Lawlor, who identifies as liberal, pointed to the coronavirus and Black Lives Matter protests as potential factors in the increase in deadly crimes but defended large cities from President Trump’s claims that Democratic-run cities are seeing the most violence because of recent police reforms.
“This is definitely a national trend, and it appears to be happening in places regardless of their criminal justice policies … It’s not like you can only isolate it to places that are ‘soft on crime,'” Lawlor said, speculating the homicides were gang- or group-related, not simply incidents of random killings.
“Law enforcement’s saying that’s what happens when you tie the hands of police, but the exact same thing’s happening in other places where you haven’t,” he said, pointing to Jacksonville, Florida, which has seen upticks in violent crime and has a Republican mayor and governor.
Arson jumped 19% across all four regions of the country, with the greatest percentage of incidents, 28%, taking place out West. The FBI also found arson offenses rose 52% in cities with populations of more than 1 million people. Dozens of agitators have been arrested this summer in Portland, where federal law enforcement protecting federal property reported violent protesters tried to burn down federal, county, and private buildings.
Mass shootings skyrocketed amid the coronavirus lockdown, with more attacks in the first seven months of 2020 than usually occur over the span of an entire year.
As of late July, 336 mass shootings have been documented across the U.S. this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an independent research group. The number of mass shootings, which is defined as four or more victims, not including the shooter, is already greater than the total 269 killed in all of 2014, 335 in 2015, and within single digits of the 2017 and 2018 annual numbers.
