After decades of ever increasing crime rates, the tide may finally be turning. While violent crime in some cities continues to move in the wrong direction, a new report shows that, nationwide, it’s actually decreasing. In fact, America may be on track to have the lowest homicide rate since 1900.
Homicide Drops to Historic Low
The Council on Criminal Justice released its recent report on crime in larger American cities and found that the incidents continued to fall during the first half of 2026, “with homicides down 18% from the same period in 2025 and 51% since the most recent peak in 2022, likely pushing the national homicide rate to a new historic low.” The results still need to be confirmed by the FBI, but the findings do indeed look promising.
The study focused on patterns for 13 crime types in 36 cities that continue to publish monthly data over the past nine years. During the first half of this year, many of the crime categories continued to decline. In fact, nine of the 13 crimes tracked were reported less often than during the same time in 2025. One of the biggest changes was carjackings, which were down 47%. But others climbed during this period: Drug offenses up 12%, and domestic violence rose by 8%.
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