# US violent crime rate by president, 1980–2025

Source page: https://govargus.com/indicators/violent-crime

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.

Latest: 328 per 100k (2025).
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, via Crime Data Explorer (https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/downloads). 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

Each row is the value at the last full period before inauguration and at the end of the term, with the yearly rate of change, next to the rate of change over the four years before the term (the trend it inherited). A term's first year mostly reflects the previous administration's policies, and Congress, the Federal Reserve and the world economy move these numbers too. Govargus describes; it does not score presidents.

| President | Term | During term | 4 years before |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Donald Trump (2nd term) | 2025–present | 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 |

## Events that bear on this indicator

- Nov 30, 1993, law: Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. Requires background checks for handgun purchases from licensed dealers, starting in 1994.
- Sep 13, 1994, law: Violent 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.
- May 25, 2020, shock: Murder of George Floyd and nationwide protests. Followed by the largest one-year rise in murders on record (2020), alongside pandemic disruption.