FBI Data Show An Unprecedented Spike In Murders Nationwide In 2020

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New York City police officers investigate a shooting homicide scene on Aug. 20, 2020, in Brooklyn.





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Jeff Asher, a data consultant who studies crime rates, said the increase is the largest since national records began being kept in 1960s.

The murder rate is still below its historic peaks reached in the 1990s, but the figures from 2020 show that the problem has become much more widespread.

«In the ’90s, New York and Los Angeles accounted for 13.5% of all murders nationally. Last year, it was under 4%, he said. «So it’s a lot more diffuse than it was in the ’90s.

In the latest FBI data, murder was up more percentage-wise in cities with a population between 10,000 and 25,000 than in cities of 250,000 to 1 million.

«It was up over 30% in both, so neither was good, but it was worse slightly, percentage-wise in smaller cities, Asher said. «It was bad everywhere. There’s not a good murder takeaway there.

Much of the violence was driven by firearms, with nearly 77% of murders being committed with some sort of gun.

That figure has been slowly inching up over the past several years, Asher said, but he said 2020 is the first time that figure has eclipsed 75%.

The FBI report does not delve into reasons behind the increase or decrease in various crimes. But researchers say a range of factors contribute to annual variations, and the turmoil of 2020 — including the coronavirus pandemic and the fallout from George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis by police — likely played a role.