A new report released Thursday finds violent crime in cities across the country is generally moving in the right direction, compared to last year. In fact, in many cases, violent crime is now lower than pre-pandemic levels in many places.
But in D.C., when violent crime does occur, it鈥檚 a lot deadlier than it used to be.
That鈥檚 according to the findings of the Council on Criminal Justice’s midyear report. It looked at crime trends around the country, including in D.C., Baltimore and Richmond.
鈥淭he overall takeaway is that homicide and other violent crimes are declining through the first half of this year and continuing to fall below pre-pandemic levels,鈥� said Ernesto Lopez, a senior researcher with CCJ.
鈥淭his is a continuing pattern of declining crime rates. Even some offenses, such as motor vehicle theft, that are seeing huge spikes really throughout 2022 and 2023, are really starting to come down in many jurisdictions.鈥�
While not at pre-pandemic levels yet, Lopez said carjackings, in particular, have seen noticeable declines since a dramatic spike starting in 2020 and in 2023. But the numbers also show there鈥檚 no escaping how much deadlier violent crime in D.C. has become.
鈥淟ethality has climbed significantly,鈥� Lopez said. 鈥淲e look back to 2012 lethality 鈥� again, that share of violence that ended a homicide 鈥� that increased by over 300% from 2012 to 2024, even though if the homicide rate drops. So, the violent situations can be getting less frequent, but when those violent situations occur, they more likely end in a fatality than over a decade ago.鈥�
While the study didn鈥檛 seek to explain why, violent crimes committed with a gun and ending in death also spiked significantly. Since 2012, there has been a 200% increase in deaths after crimes involving a gun in D.C.
The last two D.C. police chiefs have made that connection on numerous occasions.
D.C. police referred 小萝莉影视 to comments made by Chief Pamela Smith to the D.C. Council in 2024.
In talking about the 274 homicides recorded in 2023 鈥� the highest since 1997, Smith noted that even though shootings were up 9% in 2023, compared to the prior three-year average, the number of shootings turning deadly were up 22% when compared to that same period. The chief said there would have been 82 fewer homicides in 2023 if the fatality rate of all shootings were at 2017 rates.
鈥淥ne factor driving the higher lethality of shootings is the increase in the use of conversion switches, which modify handguns from semiautomatic to fully automatic,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淭he number that MPD recovered tripled in just two years, from 66 in 2021 to 195 in 2023. Overall, more than 3,000 firearms were recovered in 2023, about the same number as in 2022 and 36% more than in 2021.鈥�
The one bright spot in that regard, according to the report, is 鈥渢hat has flattened out,鈥� Lopez said.
鈥淏ut it still remains significantly elevated compared to around 2012, and even the last several years,鈥� he added.
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