Council on Criminal Justice presents data on "Homicide Trends: What You Need to Know"

The quoted portion of the title of this post is the title of this helpful new data briefing on modern US homicide trends produced by the Council on Criminal Justice.  Here is how the presentation of data is introduced (with links from the original) along with the key six data observations:

Each fall, the Federal Bureau of Investigation aggregates and distributes annual crime data from law enforcement agencies across the country.  Many agencies now post their own weekly and monthly data online, permitting researchers, including those at the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ), to analyze and report trends in closer to real time.

On September 27, the FBI released its year-end report for 2020.  The government’s figures largely mirrored what CCJ and Arnold Ventures reported in January based on a sample of 34 cities. Both reports, for instance, indicated that in 2020 homicide increased by nearly 30% over the year before.

This brief summarizes key takeaways based on the newly issued FBI report as well as historical and more recent data....

1.  Violent crime, particularly homicide, increased in 2020. The increase has slowed in 2021 and levels remain below historical highs.... 
2.  A greater share of homicides involved firearms in 2020....
3.  The age of homicide victims and offenders remains relatively stable, although it declined slightly in 2020....
4.  The percentage of Hispanic victims and offenders has decreased....
5.  The homicide clearance rate declined significantly in 2020, continuing a downward trend that began in the 1970s....
6.  The circumstances of homicides have grown increasingly unclear.