Biden Admin Says Crime Is Falling, but Faulty Crime Stats Make for Unreliable Comparisons

After a massive spike in 2020, violent crime levels in the United States are dropping but still aren’t below where they were before the pandemic year. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said in March that crime dropped across the country in the final three months of 2023, compared with the same period in 2022, including a 13 percent drop in homicides. Attorney General Merrick Garland heralded the data in a statement as evidence that its federal violent crime reduction strategy was yielding results. However, some crime data analysts are skeptical of the FBI’s reporting, saying the agency’s statistics are estimates based on flawed and incomplete data, which lowers the value of its conclusions and comparisons....