Homicides rose in 2021, but FBI data incomplete – By Nicole Sganga (CBS News) / Oct 5, 2022
The number of murders reported in the United States ticked up last year, the FBI said Wednesday, but the bureau warned that changes to its data collection program prevented nearly half of law enforcement agencies — including police in New York City and Los Angeles — from turning over their data.
Overall, the FBI estimated that violent crime decreased by 1% in the U.S. in 2021. The robbery rate decreased 8.9% from 2020 to 2021, which FBI officials say heavily contributed to the decrease in overall violent crime, despite increases in murder and rape rates at the national level.
The number of murders reported in the U.S. rose by 4.3% since 2020, FBI data indicated. But leading officials do not believe this is an accurate picture, since only 11,794 of 18,806 law enforcement agencies chose to submit expanded homicide data. They concluded that participation for 2021 remained “below a statistically acceptable level to be nationally representative.”
The incomplete data comes as the FBI and the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics transition to a more granular and comprehensive crime-reporting system, known as the “National Incident-Based Reporting System.”
CONTINUE > https://www.cbsnews.com/news/homicides-rose-2021-but-fbi-data-incomplete/