The media, and certain politicians, keep screaming that crime is out-of-control in the U.S.  Our cities are worse than the fighting in Syria.  “It’s a slaughter out there,” one politician said.  We citizens wonder and start to worry: is crime up or down?  What’s the truth?

Here’s the answer.

In 1929 the police chiefs of dozens of American cities got together to start keep track of actual crimes in their cities and counties.  By 1930 the FBI also became involved and, eventually, took over responsibility for the gathering, reporting, and trending.  Their years of effort is called, Uniform Crime Reporting.  It’s updated regularly and is available to anyone at:  https://ucr.fbi.gov

Today, crime data is fed from 18,000 cities, universities, counties, states, and tribal areas into the agency.  They assemble the data and post the numbers.  They also record historical statistics and compare them to present day.  These are as real and factual numbers about crime that anyone can come up with.  It can answer is crime up or down.

The statistics are divided into four categories.  They are:  Crime in the U.S, National Incident-based Reporting System, Law Enforcement Officers killed and assaulted, Hate Crime Statistics.  When you look at anyone of these categories you will find even more extensive research on many aspects of each of these.

Instead of trusting the news/politicians, go, instead, to this site for the real numbers.  For instance, in my home town of Minneapolis, I looked-up Homicides occurring in the state.  I thought of the people arguing  for and against handguns, so decided to check on how many people were actually killed by a handgun.  The site has long lists of data.  What I found in my search surprised me.

In the homicides where victims died of weapons, I found interesting data.  The number killed by handguns was only about half of the total number.  (47%) The other half died from the following weapons:  knives, shotguns, hands and feet.  (46%)

If you’re worried–is crime up or down?  Here’s a resource that will give you all you need to know and may put your mind at rest.  (FBI statistics show that violent crimes are down from 20+ years ago by about half.)