For roughly two decades, the United States enjoyed a marked decline in its crime rates. Burglaries, murders, other violent crimes—they all fell steadily. That promising age ended as 2014 gave way to 2015. For the past two years, crime has been rising. And alarmingly, it is violent crimes—particularly murder—that have led the way.

In 2015, according to FBI data, murders ticked up a statistically significant 11 percent over the previous year. During the same period, assaults were up 5 percent and rapes increased 6 percent. The Brennan Center for Justice has confirmed that the troubling trend continued in 2016. (FBI data for 2016 have yet to be released.) The Brennan Center says murders were up 13.1 percent in 2016; this on top of the double-digit increase in 2015. In a two-year period, murders have risen by a quarter in the United States.