John R. Lott Jr., RealClearPolitics
Crime is a major issue in this year’s election, yet the mainstream media has ignored the release of a major new government report showing a sharp rise in violent crime — a record increase under the Biden administration.
Latest Data release The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) released by the Department of Justice last Thursday revealed that violent crime has risen sharply under the Biden-Harris administration compared to when President Trump left office.
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During the debate, Muir said: attention“Mr. President, as you know, the FBI has reported that violent crime across the board is declining,” he said. However, Muir said it would be more accurate to say that crime is trending downward. Reported Calls to police have gone down, but that’s not the same as total crime. Trump also might have acknowledged that fewer than half of police departments reported complete data to the FBI in 2022, as he pointed out in his response.
Because victims don’t report most crimes, the NCVS was established more than 50 years ago to measure crime overall, and the survey interviews 240,000 people each year.
The total number of serious violent crimes (rape, robbery and aggravated assault), a category that corresponds to the FBI’s violent crime index, has skyrocketed since 2020. Total violent crimes in 2023 are up 55.4% since the Biden-Harris administration took office. Rape is up 42%, robbery is up 63% and aggravated assault is up 55%.
The increase under the Biden-Harris administration is by far the largest increase in any three-year period to date and is more than double the previous record.
Days have passed and the media has not mentioned these significant increases.
Associated Press Ran In a “fact check” Friday after President Trump held a press conference in California, the acting director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics said that while the violent victimization rate in 2023 was higher than 2020 and 2021, it is not statistically different from the pre-COVID rate in 2019, when Trump was president.
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Notably, there is no mention of whether this rate is statistically different from 2020 or 2021, nor is there any mention of the magnitude of the increase. Trump’s claim is that violent crime has increased under a Biden-Harris administration. The 2022 rate is Statistically significant This is higher than the previous two years. Violent crime rates for 2022 and 2023 are also significantly higher.
Total violent crimes increased by 19% from 2019 to 2023, the only other time there has been a larger increase over a four-year period.
In many parts of the country, we see products in CVS and Walgreens stores placed behind plexiglass, and customers must call a store employee to unlock the glass and wait while they read and examine the various packages. Americans know that things weren’t like this just a few years ago.
Despite much publicity about the decline in murder rates over the past few years, Americans feel violent crime is on the rise.
Murders are almost always reported, so the data is relatively reliable: The murder rate fell 13% in 2023, but remains 5% higher than in 2019, according to the FBI report.
While the NCVS does not track murder rates, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contradicts the FBI numbers: While the FBI reports that murder rates peaked in 2020 and declined in 2021 and 2022, CDC data shows that murder rates were actually higher in 2022 than in 2020 (2022 is the most recent year for which CDC data is available).
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The media is trying to protect Democrats from bad news about crime, which is key to many Democratic arguments. Democrats have argued that because crime is going down, an influx of illegal immigrants cannot cause crime. [Republican National Convention] it is [illegal immigration] It’s leading to increased crime,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. Claimed On Fox News Sunday.
The news media won’t report shocking numbers. They know that if word gets out that the rates of rape, robbery and aggravated assault are 55% higher than they were in 2020 and well above pre-COVID levels, the Democratic press will go wild.
John R. Lott Jr. Real Clear Surveyfocusing on voting rights and gun rights. His articles have appeared in publications such as: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, USA Todayand Chicago TribuneLott is an economist who has held research and teaching positions at the University of Chicago, Yale University, Stanford University, UCLA, Wharton School, and Rice University.
Distributed with permission From RealClearWire.
