As temperatures rise and schools let out, summer can often be a violent stretch for big metropolitan cities in the U.S. But Houston defied longstanding national trends this year, leading to a drop in the city’s homicide rate.
Unlike the majority of cities in 2025, Houston had seen more homicides through May than it did in 2024. But then between May and July, the city saw 70 homicides compared to 94 in 2024, records show.
As recently as five years ago, cities across the U.S. saw small increases in serious violent crime during the summer, according to Janet Lauritsen, distinguished professor emerita in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis…