U.S.: number of reported violent crime 1990-2022
Violent crime in the United States
The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that violent crime fell nationwide in the period from 1990 to 2022. Violent crime was at a height of 1.93 million crimes in 1992, but has since reached a low of 1.15 million violent crimes in 2014. When conducting crime reporting, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program considered murder, nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault to be violent crimes, because they are offenses which involve force or threat of violence.In 2022, there were 21,156 reported murder and nonnegligent manslaughter cases in the United States. California, with 2,197 murders in 2022, ranked first on a list of U.S. states by number of murders, followed by Texas (2,020 murders), and Illinois (881 murders).
The greatest number of murders were committed by murderers of unknown relationship to their victim. “Girlfriend” was the fourth most common relationship of victim to offender in 2022, with a reported 601 partners murdering their girlfriends that year, while sixth most common was “wife.” In addition, 14 people were murdered by their employees and 13 people were murdered by their employers.
The most used murder weapon in 2022 was the handgun, which was used in 7,936 murders that year. According to the FBI, firearms (of all types) were used in more than half of the nation’s murders. The total number of firearms manufactured in the U.S. annually has reached over 13 million units.