by Zac Anderson
USA TODAY
April 30, 2024

… The United States experienced a spike in violent crimes that coincided with the pandemic and social unrest surrounding police killings of George Floyd and other unarmed African American individuals.

The FBI reported that violent crimes increased an estimated 5.6% in 2020 and remained at that elevated level in 2021, dipping by just 1%.

The 29% estimated increase in murders in 2020 was particularly shocking, and murders jumped another 4.3% in 2021 estimates.

While the increase was alarming, crime was still well below levels seen a few decades ago, said Jeffrey Butts, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and director of the school’s Research and Evaluation Center.

“When COVID hit we saw this spike, so from 2020 to 2022 it was bad but… it still came nowhere near where we were in the 1990s,” Butts said, noting crime soon began to drop again as expected.

Researchers believe the crime increase was a blip caused by pandemic disruptions, Butts said.

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