Visualize Justice: Are homicide rates falling?

Or is this a return to baseline?

Author

Ann Leymon
April 16, 2026

Have homicide rates fallen over the last six years?

Hello! I’m back - with simpler graphs and less text.

Today we’re starting a series on crime rates. Have you been hearing about 2025’s amazing drop in crime? Or is that only big news for people who spend all day thinking about criminal justice?

Graph showing meaningful drop in annual US homicide rate

Welcome to Visualize Justice: Dataviz insights to illuminate the justice system. Here I use 10+ years of experience in research to make the complicated justice system, and the complexities of its data, easier to understand. The better we understand what’s actually happening, the clearer we are about how we can make our communities safer and do less harm.

Yes, homicide rates fell overall in 2025.

The national homicide rate increased in 2020, and overall remained high through 2024. So the drop in 2025 is great news. We’ll be looking at other crime types in future issues - not every crime follows this trend.

The U.S. homicide rate has been falling since 2022.

We’ll all be watching to see what happens in 2026 and beyond, but this shift is large enough to seem meaningful.

What do you think?

I like this waterfall chart for showing crime rates over time because it shows the annual trends, but highlights the change between the first and last year. The yearly detail is included but not given equal weight.

And how do you like the new format? I made this series before I scaled back the newsletter - you can expect even more simplicity in the future. I love a complicated and nuanced story, but the goal in this space is quick and easy to understand.

This newsletter is for busy people who care about justice and want to understand it.

Does that sound like someone you know? I’d appreciate it if you forwarded this on to them.

What do you think about this topic and my main points? Write me back or schedule a time to chat.

Let’s keep working for a more peaceful system.

Kindly,
Ann

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