COLUMBUS – Despite an overall downward trend recently, violent crime has been on the rise in the past couple of years, according to an annual report from the FBI.
Violent crime in America rose in 2016 for the second straight year, driven by a spike in killings in some major cities, but remained near historically low levels
The estimated 1.2 million violent crimes reported in the U.S. last year was the highest since 2012, but the bureau’s latest Crime in the United States report showed a decrease from 2007.
The report showed that 4,500 violent crimes were committed in Columbus in 2016, a 3 percent decline from 2015, but the 91 murders were 18 percent more than the 77 in 2015. Columbus police say there have already been 97 homicides in the city in 2017.
Violent crime increased for the second consecutive year, according to the FBI, increasing 4.1 percent from 2015 to 2016 and while it increased 2.6 percent from 2012, violent crime has declined 12.3 percent since 2007.
An analysis of the FBI data by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University found 11 major cities were responsible for driving up the national murder rate. Chicago, for example, saw a 60 percent jump in killings from 2015, accounting for more than 20 percent of the nation’s increase in murders.
The report is a compilation of information reported to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program by more than 16,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide and the bureau cautions the data should not be used to create rankings of the nation’s most dangerous, or safest, communities.