America's Crime, Murder Rates Expected to Drop in 2017

The crime rate in America's 30 largest cities is expected to fall by nearly 3 percent in 2017, according to a new analysis from the Brennan Center for Justice.

The organization released an update to its September report on crime this week, which predicts overall crime and violent crime will fall.

Key figures in the data:

• The crime rate in the 30 largest cities will fall by 2.7 percent in 2017.
• The violent crime rate in the 30 largest cities will decrease by 1.1 percent.
• The murder rate in the 30 largest cities will fall by 5.6 percent. That includes decreases in Houston (28.6 percent), New York City (16.8 percent), Chicago (11.9 percent), and Detroit (9.8 percent).
• The murder rate is expected to rise in cities such as Charlotte (54.6 percent), Columbus (35.5 percent), Portland (20.1 percent), and Baltimore (11.3 percent).

The murder rate in Las Vegas is expected to drop by 19.5 percent, as police there recorded 130 murders in 2017 — down from 158 in 2016. However, Las Vegas officials did not include the October mass shooting, which resulted in 58 deaths, in its 2017 total. The Brennan Center wrote police departments often classify mass shootings as acts of terror and, therefore, exclude them from murder totals.

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