Public safety
Violent crime rate by president
Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults reported to police, per 100,000 people (FBI national estimates). Estimates from 2021 on are based on the FBI's new incident-based system (NIBRS) and aren't strictly comparable with earlier years.
328 per 100k latest, 2025
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, via Crime Data Explorer. Annual data, fetched Oct 19, 2026.
Since 1980, the violent crime rate ranged from 328 per 100k in 2025 under Donald Trump (2nd term) to 758 per 100k in 1991 under George H. W. Bush. Of the 7 completed terms with data, the violent crime rate rose fastest under George H. W. Bush, at +29 per 100k/yr against +25 per 100k/yr in the four years before, and fell fastest under Bill Clinton, at −31 per 100k/yr against +29 per 100k/yr in the four years before. So far under Donald Trump (2nd term), it has gone from 363 per 100k in 2024 to 328 per 100k in 2025.
By presidential term
Violent crime rate, term by term: every term lined up from inauguration on one chart.
Value at the last full period before inauguration and at the end of the term, with the yearly rate of change. The second column is the rate of change over the four years before the term: the trend they inherited. Remember the lag: a term's first year mostly reflects the previous one's policies.
| President | During term | 4 years before |
|---|---|---|
| Donald Trump (2nd term) 2025–now | 363 per 100k → 328 per 100k −35 per 100k/yr · through 2025 | −9 per 100k/yr |
| Joe Biden 2021–2025 | 399 per 100k → 363 per 100k −9 per 100k/yr | 0 per 100k/yr |
| Donald Trump (1st term) 2017–2021 | 398 per 100k → 399 per 100k 0 per 100k/yr | +2 per 100k/yr |
| Barack Obama 2009–2017 | 459 per 100k → 398 per 100k −8 per 100k/yr | −1 per 100k/yr |
| George W. Bush 2001–2009 | 507 per 100k → 459 per 100k −6 per 100k/yr | −33 per 100k/yr |
| Bill Clinton 1993–2001 | 758 per 100k → 507 per 100k −31 per 100k/yr | +29 per 100k/yr |
| George H. W. Bush 1989–1993 | 641 per 100k → 758 per 100k +29 per 100k/yr | +25 per 100k/yr |
| Ronald Reagan 1981–1989 | 597 per 100k → 641 per 100k +5 per 100k/yr | — |
| Jimmy Carter 1977–1981 | no data | no data |
More public safety indicators
Events that bear on this indicator
- May 25, 2020 ShockMurder of George Floyd and nationwide protests. Followed by the largest one-year rise in murders on record (2020), alongside pandemic disruption.
- Sep 13, 1994 LawViolent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. The 1994 crime bill: funding for 100,000 police officers and new prisons, tougher sentencing, and a 10-year federal assault weapons ban.
- Nov 30, 1993 LawBrady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. Requires background checks for handgun purchases from licensed dealers, starting in 1994.