USA - Crime Rate Plunged Since 1990s
U.S. violent and property crime rates have plunged since the 1990s, regardless of data source.
The FBI data shows a 59% reduction in the U.S. property crime rate between 1993 and 2022, with big declines in the rates of burglary (-75%), larceny/theft (-54%) and motor vehicle theft (-53%).
Using the BJS statistics, the declines in the violent and property crime rates are even steeper than those captured in the FBI data. Per BJS, the U.S. violent and property crime rates each fell 71% between 1993 and 2022.
While crime rates have fallen sharply over the long term, the decline hasn’t always been steady. There have been notable increases in certain kinds of crime in some years, including recently.
In 2020, for example, the U.S. murder rate saw its largest single-year increase on record—and by 2022, it remained considerably higher than before the coronavirus pandemic. Preliminary data for 2023, however, suggests that the murder rate fell substantially last year.
How do Americans perceive crime in their country?
Americans tend to believe crime is up, even when official data shows it is down.
In 23 of 27 Gallup surveys conducted since 1993, at least 60% of U.S. adults have said there is more crime nationally than there was the year before, despite the downward trend in crime rates during most of that period.
-www.pewresearch.org, 24 April 2024
Arno's Commentary
It is unfortunate Scripture is often misused through misinterpretation. For example, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come” (2 Timothy 3:1). When we read the verses that follow, we quickly realize that this is addressed to the Church, not the world.
When Jesus speaks about the end times in Matthew 24:21—“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be”—He is not identifying our time but the time during the Great Tribulation.
For our time, He gives comfort: “But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by” (Luke 21:9).
Jesus refers to Noah and the Great Flood: “For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark” (Matthew 24:38). This reveals normal human activity: eating, drinking, and marrying. That has been ongoing for some 6,000 years.
Analyzing today’s news, we hear and read about the chaos of this world, the horrible things that are happening. Many say this must be the beginning of the Great Tribulation. Not so: It may come as a surprise for most of us to actually see a document demonstrating the crime rate plunge since 1990 in the USA.
Actually, we are living in the most peaceful period on planet earth.
Just open history books or statistics, and you will find that war was a common event year in and year out. Why then, according to the Gallup survey, do 60% of US adults insist that crime is increasing, when in reality there is a downward trend? In plain words, this is due to false prophets—not intending to be evil, but sensational.
NationMaster.com reveals that crime rates in the US are four times higher than in Japan. Statista.com states, “The Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden have long been considered some of the most peaceful to live in worldwide, with low crime rates and low levels of violence.”
This may sound strange, but never before in the history of humanity have nations dealt as peacefully with each other as they do today. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) states that approximately 45,000 passenger flights are in the air at any given moment, moving some 10 million people. Almost 6,000 container ships are carrying merchandise from one continent to another, and that very peacefully!
That was unthinkable 100 years ago. Look at global tourism. The undisputed world leader is France, with almost 90 million arrivals in 2024, followed by Spain at 83.7 million, the US at 79.3 million, China at 65.7 million, and Italy at 64.5 million, rounding out the top five in the world.
Now the question: What is the motive for publishing these interesting statistics? The answer: the world must become a peaceful, prosperous, and secure global society—but, we add, without God.
There will be peace, albeit temporarily. The great tragedy is for those who do not believe.
Yet for us believers: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-3).
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
