Latest CCJ accounting of crime trends shows good news and bad news for first half of 2022

The Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) is continuing to do important and timely work on modern crime trends through an on-going series of reports under the heading "Pandemic, Social Unrest, and Crime in U.S. Cities."  The latest version of this report, titled "Pandemic, Social Unrest, and Crime in U.S. Cities: Mid-End 2021 Update," was just released this week and is flagged in this new CCJ press release.  Here is an excerpt:

Murders and gun assaults in major American cities fell slightly during the first half of 2022, while robberies and some property offenses posted double-digit increases, according to a new analysis of crime trends released today by the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ).

Examining homicides in 23 cities that make data readily available, the study found that the number of murders in the first half of the year dipped by 2% compared to the first half of 2021 (a decrease of 54 homicides in those cities). Gun assaults also fell, by 6%, during the first six months of this year compared to the same timeframe last year, while overall aggravated assault counts rose 4%. Robbery jumped by 19%....

In other findings, trends in most property crimes reversed from the first two years of the pandemic.  Residential burglaries (+6%), nonresidential burglaries (+8%), and larcenies (+20%) all rose in the first half of 2022.  Motor vehicle thefts increased (+15%) but that trend began during the early months of the pandemic.  The number of drug offenses fell in the first half of 2022 (-7%), continuing earlier pandemic patterns.

This CCJ webpage provides a link to the full report and a bit full overview of the report's methodology and key findings.  One can find plenty of heartening and disheartening data in the graphs and other information in this full report.  The recent decline in homicides and gun assaults still leave us a long way from the lower pre-pandemic rates of these harmful crime.  But the recent uptick in various property crimes still leave us well below the higher pre-pandemic rates of these crimes.  And there is still an extraordinary diversity of of crime patterns in cities large and small throughout the US.