The Bureau of Justice Statistics released some new numbers recently. I encourage you to read the reports, which I’ll include a link. I’ll just highlight some things that captured my interest
Crime Known to Law Enforcement, 2025 (uses NIBRS data)
Available here: https://bjs.ojp.gov/document/ckle25.pdf
I really like the title – lets you know what the dataset is about. Here are the totals and percentages for the US:
| Homicide: 14,660: | 1.28% |
| Rape: 130,580 | 11.4% |
| Robbery: 172,580 | 15.07% |
| Aggravated Assault: 827,610 | 72.25% |
| Total: 1,145,430 | 100% |
Aggravated Assault and Robbery are about 87% of the total of violent crime. This has been pretty consistent throughout the years. Murder however, is down to 1.3% of the total of violent crime. All violent victimizations fell compared to 2024.
Homicide Victimization in the
United States, 2025
Available Here: https://bjs.ojp.gov/document/hvus25.pdf
This report details homicide specifics. Remember, homicide was 1.3% of the total of violent crime.
So, did the murder victim know their murderer? Well:
Intimate Partner: 15.2%
Other Family: 15.9%
Not Family But Known: 42.1%
Stranger: 22.2%
Unknown: 24.7%
These percentages do not map to 100% due to multiple offenders. I suspect unknown deals with a lot of criminal activity. A person is killed, likely drug related, and no one knows anything. It would be far better for this report to do single offender / single victim so the percentages would add up to 100%. I think the key thing is you are most likely going to know the person who kills you. Concealed Carry training primarily deals with strangers in public places. We can see a mismatch here.
Victimization Estimates from the
Redesigned NCVS Instrument, 2024
Available here: https://bjs.ojp.gov/document/verncvsi24.pdf
I think the most important finding is this one:
Stranger violence dropped from 3,091,500 with the Legacy NCVS instrument to 1,915,870 with the redesigned instrument. It was a statistically significant and wasn’t mentioned in the highlights. This means, with the new instrument, crimes committed by strangers dropped. Unless, “unknown” jumped the same amount, you were more likely to get vicitmized by someone you knew.
It looks like rape/sexual assault will improve as well. Looking forward to see what changes happen in 2025 when those statistics are done with the fully revised instrument.