The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics recently released findings from its 2020 National Crime Victimization Survey.
This annual report shows a 22 percent decline in the total violent victimization rate from 2019 to 2020.[1] The rate of violent crime dropped from 21.0 to 16.4 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older. The decrease in violent victimization was driven primarily by a decline in simple and aggravated assault.
The rate of property crime victimization declined for the second year in a row, from 101.4 to 94.5 victimizations per 1,000 households from 2019 to 2020. The decline in property crime (burglary, residential trespassing, motor vehicle theft, and other types of household theft) during this period was due to decreases in the rates of burglary and trespassing.
Victims of crime reported about 40 percent of violent victimizations and 33 percent of property victimizations to the police in 2020.
Read the Criminal Victimization, 2020 report
[note 1] Violent victimization in the National Crime Victimization Survey includes rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault and simple assault. It does not include homicide as the survey is based on in-person interviews with persons age 12 or older in a representative sample of households in the United States.