FBI Revise Data That Showed Violent Crime Down

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FBI Revise Data That Showed Violent Crime Down
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FBI Revise Data That Showed Violent Crime Down

In what they call a “Stealth Edit,” RealClearInvestigation’s John Lott reported that in 2023, the FBI initially reported a 2.1% drop in violent crime for 2022. This statistic quickly became a key talking point for Democrats. However, the FBI quietly revised this data, showing a 4.5% increase in violent crime, including thousands of additional murders, rapes, robberies, and assaults not previously counted. The agency offered no public explanation for this significant revision, raising concerns among researchers about transparency and data reliability.

Lott wrote:

RCI discovered the change through a cryptic reference on the FBI website that states: “The 2022 violent crime rate has been updated for inclusion in CIUS, 2023.” But there is no mention that the numbers increased. One only sees the change by downloading the FBI’s new crime data and comparing it to the file released last year.

After the FBI released its new crime data in September, a USA Today headline read: “Violent crime dropped for third straight year in 2023, including murder and rape.” 

It’s been over three weeks since the FBI released the revised data. The Bureau’s lack of acknowledgment or explanation about the significant change concerns researchers.

Experts noted that, while small revisions occurred in previous years, such drastic changes were unprecedented. The FBI’s method of estimating crime based on partial data from police departments complicates the trustworthiness of the figures. The FBI's failure to address this revision has fueled skepticism, and broader crime trends remain contentious, with other surveys like the National Crime Victimization Survey showing much sharper increases in violent crime than the FBI’s reports.

The Times of India wrote, “When Donald Trump said during the debate that crime incidents increased in the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration, he was fact-checked…the new numbers show Trump was right.”