Research/Study
Right-wing media are pretending violent crime is out of control despite FBI data showing otherwise
Written by Chloe Simon
Research contributions from Isabella Corrao
Published
On September 23, the FBI released data showing that crime rates, including for violent crimes, have “dropped nationally from 2022 to 2023.” But right-wing media have persisted in their coverage claiming that people “insist crime is out of control” and that the numbers “don’t pass the smell test.”
Jump to section...
-
Violent crime rates dropped in 2023 and are continuing to drop in 2024
-
- On September 23, the FBI reported that “violent crime was down about 3% from 2022 to 2023.” NBC News reported, “The most serious crimes went down significantly: murder and non-negligent manslaughter were down an estimated 11.6% — the largest single year decline in two decades — while rape decreased by an estimated 9.4%.” The Major Cities Chiefs Association has also reported that a downward trend of violent crime has continued in 2024, with “69 out of 70 responding agencies” reporting that the numbers of homicides, sexual assaults, robberies, and aggravated assaults have all gone down since 2023. [NBC News, 9/23/24; Major Cities Chiefs Association, 8/8/24]
- The FBI’s report has “information from 700 additional agencies in 2023 compared to 2022,” including from the police departments of Los Angeles and New York City. CNN noted that the agency’s numbers “are preliminary, not all communities submitted data and the submitted data usually has some errors, so these statistics may not precisely capture the size of the recent declines in crime.” However, the FBI did report that “every city agency covering a population of 1,000,000 or more inhabitants contributed a full 12 months of data.” As per NBC News, “The total population covered by the report is more than 315 million people, or 94.3% of the country.” [NBC News, 9/23/24; CNN, 9/23/24]
-
Right-wing media have pushed the false narrative that violent crime is high throughout the year
-
- In 2024, Fox News has been a major driver of the narrative that violent crime is out of control. Fox News has failed to cover FBI reports that debunk its crime wave hysteria, ignoring data from August “showing that violent crime dropped sharply in major cities over the first half of 2024” as the network showed hours of violent crime footage. Fox hosts also undermined the August FBI data by making misleading claims that many cities failed to submit crime data, which is no longer true as of 2022 with the implementation of a new reporting system. [Media Matters, 8/15/24, 8/23/24]
-
Right-wing figures are insisting that the new crime data is “incomplete & misleading” and that it doesn’t show “how it feels”
-
- Reacting to a viral video of drag racers causing chaos in Philadelphia, Fox News anchor Dana Perino said, “So much for crime being down,” and Fox host Greg Gutfeld added, “The statistics that the FBI uses aren't taken seriously because they’re limited — they don't pass the smell test.” [Fox News, The Five, 9/24/24]
- Discussing a crime survivors rally, Fox host Harris Faulkner said, “So crime down — what about violent crime? Because that’s the part that is changing people’s lives.” Faulkner also pivoted to allege, “Some of that crime has been committed by people who have crossed our border, pouring into the country.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 9/24/24]
- Fox News host Brian Kilmeade claimed that “folks … insist crime is out of control despite White House claims that it’s going down.” Kilmeade also added that the “numbers tell a different story about how it feels. A lot of people are downgrading crimes.” According to PBS, the National Crime Victimization Survey, which reporter Griff Jenkins mentions in this segment as showing an increase in crime during the Joe Biden administration from the Donald Trump administration, “notes that the [violent crime victimization] rate last year was not statistically different from the rate in 2019 — when Trump was president.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/24/24; PBS News, 9/23/24]
- Fox host Jeanine Pirro falsely claimed there has been an “increase in crime” and that Vice President Kamala Harris is responsible for it. [Fox News, The Five, 9/24/24]
- Right-wing influencer Greg Price alleged that “the FBI's data showing violent crime dropped last year relies on the idea that there was not a single reported homicide in Los Angeles or New Orleans last year.” A community note on his tweet noted that “Greg’s cropped photo hides the data” and added LAPD and New Orleans homicide numbers.” [Twitter/X, 9/23/24]
- The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh penned a piece titled “How The FBI Is Willing To Risk Your Safety To Get Kamala Elected,” suggesting that the data neither “captures all the crime that’s occurring” in the country nor shows “that this country is safer than it was a year ago.” Walsh also complained that some large police departments “didn’t report demographic data about these crimes to the FBI.” [The Daily Wire, 9/24/24]
- Twitchy published a piece titled “Lefty Media Pushing ‘Violent Crime Dropped’ FBI Report for Dem Election Boost (Yeah, About That).” The piece claims that the data comes from “The Machine” pulling out “all the stops in an effort to boost the Democrats’ chances,” adding, “The gaslighting efforts have always been high but are now ramping up even further, and one of those issues is crime.” [Twitchy, 9/23/24]
- Right-wing host Jesse Kelly claimed that “communists … simply seized the institutions like the FBI who report on the crime” to hide the reality that it’s increased. He said: “Communists love violent crime because it destabilizes a society. So they’ve created more violent crime here. They know they have to hide this fact, so they simply seized the institutions like the FBI who report on the crime.” He added that such data “gives them the power to lie to your face like this.” [Twitter/X, 9/24/24]
- The Washington Times’ Tim Murtaugh asked, “Can we talk about how the FBI releases crime stats that everyone knows are incomplete & misleading, and yet they try to pass them off as real?” Murtaugh also accused “most media” of pretending “they don’t know that statistics from major cities aren’t included because the cities didn’t report.” [Twitter/X, 9/23/24]
- Grabien founder Tom Elliot posted, “The @FBI claiming violent crime is falling — when they know cities w/ the worst violent crime failed to report their numbers — is but another example of the FBI interfering in elections against Trump.” [Twitter/X, 9/23/24]