Analysis of election results and expert commentary

FBI Revises Crime Data: Violent Crime Up 4.5% with 80,029 More Offenses

Oct 16, 2024, 02:32 PM

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has quietly revised its crime statistics for 2022 without any public announcement, now reporting that violent crime increased by 4.5%, contrary to its previous report of a 2.1% decrease. The updated data includes 80,029 more violent crimes than in 2021, with significant increases in murders, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults. Specifically, there were an additional 1,699 murders, 7,780 rapes, 33,459 robberies, and 37,091 aggravated assaults compared to the initial report. The revision has raised concerns over the reliability of the FBI's data reporting, particularly as the corrected figures emerge just weeks before the election. Critics have noted that the initial data had been used by the Biden-Harris administration and media outlets, including during debates where President Trump was fact-checked, to claim that violent crime was decreasing, and this revision undermines those assertions.