The cities — which included New York, Philadelphia, Omaha, Nebraska, and Raleigh, North Carolina, among others — were selected based on the availability of crime statistics at the time of data collection in early January 2026.
While data varied between cities, researchers said there were 25% fewer homicides in 2025 compared to 2019, with rates dropping in 27 of 35 cities in the sample.
Richmond, Virginia, saw a drop of 59%, Los Angeles saw a drop of 39% and New York City dropped by 10%. Homicide rates in some cities remained stable and several other cities saw reductions of under 5%.
Atlanta Police Chief Darren Schierbaum said Tuesday at a news conference that his city has seen a dramatic decrease in shootings since 2022. He said the department recorded under 100 homicides in 2025 for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic. CCJ data recorded a of 14% in Atlanta's murders in 2025 from the previous year.
Schierbaum said a fair number of murders in Atlanta were the result of "escalating dispute," and called on the community to consider "conflict resolution."
A group of criminal justice experts convened by CCJ had varied as to what caused such a precipitous drop in homicides, but they were generally in agreement that the stabilization of routines, an influx of COVID-19 relief funds and program intervention were strong drivers.
"Many cities focused enforcement and prevention on the small number of neighborhoods and groups driving a large share of shootings, improved shooting investigations, and got the courts moving again," said Thaddeus Johnson, an assistant professor of criminal justice and criminology at Georgia State University, and a former Memphis police official.
He added that informal guardianship returned to the streets, saying bystanders and community presence can help defuse conflicts before they escalate.
"But national averages can hide what is happening in some neighborhoods. The key question is which neighborhoods are sustaining gains, and which are not," Johnson said.
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