Violent Crime Up In NY, Most Likely To Occur At Home: FBI Report

NEW YORK — Violent crime rose sharply in New York from 2021 to 2022, bucking the national trend, according to a new FBI crime report released Monday by the agency.

However, the report is far from a complete picture. In the past, the annual snapshot of crime in the United States has been criticized as missing data from some of the country’s largest cities, including New York and Los Angeles.

This time, according to the 2022 report, New York law enforcement agencies reporting data represent only 21 percent of the state's population.

According to the New York Times, the FBI uses estimates to fill in gaps in the statistics.

According to the 2022 report, there were 9,714 all violent crime incidents, and 10,434 offenses reported in New York the year before by 149 law enforcement agencies that submitted National Incident-Based Reporting System data.

Nationally, violent crime was down slightly, by 1.7 percent to pre-pandemic levels according to the Crime In the Nation, 2022 report from the FBI. At the same time, property crimes — especially auto theft — rose considerably, by 7.1 percent nationally.

However, what was reported in violent crimes in New York swooped up after declining sharply during the pandemic.

Last year changes an almost decade-long trend in New York, where violent crime had been going down since 2012.

In the most recent 2022 report, the violent crime rate was 429.3 per 100,000 people in New York. That’s above the pre-pandemic 2019 violent crime rate of 361 per 100,000 people. The rate of increase from 2019 to 2022 was 18.9 percent.

Last year was the second in a row that violent crime went down nationally, a big turnaround from the 29 percent increase in the murder rate in 2020, a year of huge pandemic-related social disruption and upended support systems.

Richard Rosenfeld, a criminal justice professor emeritus at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, told The Associated Press the national drop in violence could be attributed largely to the fact that the “stresses and strains” associated with the pandemic have abated.

“By and large, what we’re seeing is simply a return to something approaching normal after the big changes associated with the pandemic,” Rosenfeld said.

Violent crime includes murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, aggravated assault and robbery. The biggest dips nationally were in homicides (6.1 percent) and rape (5.4 percent). Aggravated assaults decreased by 1.1 percent, and robbery was up by 1.3 percent.

In New York, violent crime was far more likely to occur at home.

The data offers a snapshot of gun violence in America. Firearms were used in 80.3 percent of murder and manslaughter crimes. More minors were shot in 2022 than in the year prior. Among juveniles, fatal gun violence increased by a staggering 11.8 percent, from 1,300 to 1,500. The number of non-fatal gunshot incidents for juveniles was also up 10.67 percent, from 61,800 to 68,300.

Also in the report:

Property Crimes

In 2022, there were 5,049,721 all property crime incidents, and 5,049,721 offenses reported in the United States by 13,293 law enforcement agencies that submitted National Incident-Based Reporting System data, and covers 75 percent of the total population. In New York, there were 73,536 all property crime incidents, and 73,536 offenses reported by 149 law enforcement agencies that submitted National Incident-Based Reporting System data, and covers 21 percent of the total population.

The 7.1 percent increase in property crimes was driven by a 10.9 percent increase in motor vehicle thefts nationwide.

Here New York mirrored the trend.

Nationally, carjackings were up 8.1 percent, and nearly 90 percent involved one or more assailants with a weapon, according to the FBI. More offenders are working in groups, with a 13 percent increase in arrests with two or more suspects. Most carjackings occur at night, between 8 p.m. and 4 p.m., and males under age 18 represent about 18 percent of those arrested.

Burglary, while continuing New York's trend of dropping then rebounding in the pandemic, remains far less prevalent than a decade ago.

Hate Crimes

Reported incidents of hate crimes were up 0.5 percent in 2022 with 11,634 reported incidents, the highest number since the FBI began tracking such data in 1991. Hate crimes against Jews were up more than 37 percent to 1,122 incidents.

“Reported hate crime incidents across the country have once again reached record highs, with anti-Jewish hate crimes at a number not seen in decades,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement.

In New York, reported hate crimes were far more likely to be anti-Jewish, the report showed.

The complete analysis is found on the Crime Data Explorer.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.