Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,
Crime rates continued to fall in 2025, with homicide rates expected to drop to about 4.0 per 100,000 residents, “the lowest rate recorded in law enforcement or public health data going back to 1900,” according to a new report published by the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) on Jan. 22.
Based on an analysis of crime trends in 40 large American cities, homicides are down 21 percent from 2024, and 44 percent from the recent peak of 2021, the CCJ said. Last year’s decline in criminal activity numbers would “mark the largest single-year percentage drop in the homicide rate on record,” the group said. The complete 2025 numbers will be reported by the FBI later this year.
“This monumental turnaround is a direct result of President Trump’s unwavering commitment to Make America Safe Again,” said the White House in a statement, touting the numbers as a result of closing the border, deploying a “whole-of-government offensive,” and bringing back order on American streets.
Meanwhile, the decline in homicide has been ongoing. “Over the past eight years,” a CCJ analysis found, “the highest average homicide rate was in 2021—18.6 per 100,000. The 2025 rate (10.4) was 44 percent below that peak.”
Eleven out of the 13 offences covered in the Jan. 22 report saw a decline in 2025 from the prior year, with nine of the offenses falling 10 percent or more. CCJ noted that drug crimes increased during this period by 7 percent, while sexual assaults remained even.
After peaking during the pandemic, carjacking and shoplifting have come down significantly in the country. Reported carjacking has declined 61 percent since 2023, while shoplifting is down 10 percent from 2024.
“This is what happens when you have a president who fully mobilizes federal law enforcement to arrest violent criminals and the worst of the worst illegal aliens,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X. “Promise Made. Promise Kept.”
Since President Donald Trump assumed office last year, the administration has instituted strict law enforcement measures across the country, which include arresting and deporting illegal immigrant criminals, strengthening enforcement against gangs and transnational cartels, disrupting drug trafficking, and securing the southern border.
On Jan. 16, the Customs and Border Protection agency announced zero parole releases along the southwest border in December 2025, compared with 7,041 releases under the prior administration in December 2024. This is the eighth consecutive month of zero releases.
Crimes in US Cities
Overall data from 35 U.S. cities showed the homicide rate dropping by about 21 percent in 2025. There were declines in 31 of the 35 cities, with roughly 40 percent drops reported in Denver; Omaha, Neb.; and Washington.
Three cities that registered an uptick in the homicide rate were Little Rock, Ark., up 16 percent; Fort Worth, Texas, up 2 percent; and Milwaukee, up 1 percent.
“The overall reduction in crime, especially homicide, is welcome news,” said CCJ senior research specialist Ernesto Lopez, lead author of the report, adding that there was a trend of homicide rates declining since the late 2000s.
CCJ President and CEO Adam Gelb said that it was difficult to “pinpoint what’s actually driving the drop” but noted there have been “big swings in criminal justice policies, programs, and rhetoric, big advances in crime-fighting technologies, and big social, economic, and cultural shifts all happening at the same time.”
CCJ is a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem lauded the administration’s first year of law enforcement efforts in a Jan. 20 post on X.
“In President Trump’s first year back in office, nearly 3 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. because of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, including an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations and more than 675,000 deportations,” Noem said.
“In the last year, fentanyl trafficking at the southern border has also been cut by more than half compared to the same period in 2024. The U.S. Coast Guard alone seized enough cocaine to kill more than 177 million Americans.”
Furthermore, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested about 7,000 gang members in 2025.
According to a Jan. 19 post by FBI Director Kash Patel, there has been a 20 percent drop in the murder rate nationwide. About 1,800 gangs and criminal enterprises operating in the country have been disrupted.
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