Some recent evidence has suggested that the national period of declining crime—which began in the mid-1990s, as rate of violence fell dramatically in the U.S.—may be over: The most recent Uniform Crime Report (UCR), an important though incomplete snapshot of homicides nationwide, found that homicide had increased by 30 percent from 2019 to 2020.
The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), however, has just released data that paints a more optimistic picture. According to 2020 NCVS reports, violent crime rates actually increased. Declined Last year’s murders did not include homicides. In addition, it seems that the common narrative that Trump’s anti-China rhetoric caused a spike in hate crime against Asian Americans is false. Both the simple assault and violent crime rates for Asian-American victims declined between 2019 and 2020.
This is why it’s so important to be cautious when interpreting these results. The NCVS doesn’t count homicides. Data comes from phone interviews with random Americans. The NCVS is therefore a scientific survey and not an actual crime count.
On the other side, the UCR is made up of all crimes that have been reported to the FBI from law enforcement agencies. Not all police departments can be included in the UCR. Required to report any information at all, which means that the UCR is in some ways more accurate—these are Verified reported crimes—but also more statistically unreliable. The data may show different reporting methods than an actual rise in crime. Year-to-year fluctuations are likely to reflect changes in reporting procedures. However, the FBI’s overall statistics is only a snapshot.
Both reports should be taken with caution. The possibility exists that some crimes in cities have increased, while others are decreasing elsewhere. However, it is possible that crime rates in certain communities were higher than those in other areas. This data doesn’t capture. Despite the negative news regarding rising violence, NCVS data shows that there may be some good news.
“I opened NCVS today with the expectation of seeing significant rises in violence and decreases in reporting,” wroteJohn Pfaff is a Fordham University law professor. I figured that it would tell a much worse story than UCR. It was quite surprising to me. This did not confirm any of my previous beliefs.”