US violent crime offenses, 1985 to 2025
US violent crime offenses stood at 87,115 in 2025, up 4.7% on the previous period.
Law enforcement agencies in United States reported 86,747 offenses in 2025-12, up 4.6 percent from the year before. The window spans 1985-01 to 2025-12, with the high at 283,541 (1997-12) and the low at 60,535 (2021-02).
How it is measured
The offense is defined as the sum of homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Counts come from the FBI's Crime Data Explorer, which aggregates the monthly reports police agencies submit to the national crime statistics program; the chart sums them to years so trends read over seasonality. Reported crime is not total crime: it counts what victims reported and agencies recorded, and agency participation shifts over time, most sharply around the 2021 transition to the NIBRS reporting system, which temporarily lowered coverage.
What the curve shows
The violent-crime total is dominated numerically by aggravated assault, so headlines about it usually describe assault trends. Within a consistent reporting era the trend is meaningful; across eras, level comparisons need the coverage caveat in mind.
Is this all crime, or reported crime?
What happened to the data around 2021?
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