America's Murder Problem Is Smaller Than It Looks

Authored by John R. Lott Jr. via RealClearPolitics,

World Cup visitors discovered something many Americans already know: The United States does not feel like the dangerous place they've been led to expect. That's because America's murder problem is not spread evenly across the country. Does the United States have a higher murder rate than its peer countries? Yes - but new research shows that statistic obscures how murders in the U.S. are extremely concentrated in very tiny areas.

In 2025, the U.S. murder rate fell to just under 4 murders per 100,000 people. During the first six months of 2026, data compiled by the Council on Criminal Justice shows that murders in the nation's 30 largest cities declined by another 18%. If that decline reflects the national trend, and that is likely, the U.S. murder rate will fall to approximately 3.25 per 100,000 people this year.

Even at that level, the U.S. murder rate would remain about 70% higher than Canada's 2024 homicide rate of 1.91 per 100,000 people and Australia's approximately READ MORE AT SOURCE »