According To FBI Statistics, Chicago Lags Behind National Murder Decreases
The FBI's latest Uniform Crime Report revealed that Chicago was far from the "murder capital" label it sometimes receives. Still, when you look at 10 years of FBI violent crime statistics for Chicago, the Windy City continues to lag behind the nation when it comes to reducing murders.
The FBI's most recent numbers marked a change for Chicago. For the first time in decades, the FBI provided complete violent crime statistics for the Windy City.
With a population of 2,724,121 people, Chicago had 24,089 violent crimes in 2014. Nationally, with a population of 318,857,056 people, there were 1,798,792 violent crimes in 2014, a .2 percent drop from the year before.
Violent crime includes four categories: murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
Since Chicago's violent crime statistics are incomplete prior to 2014, it's difficult to measure Chicago's progress over the past decade.
Breaking it down by individual violent crimes, Chicago saw a small decrease in murders from year-to-year. This .72 percent drop in murders was a slightly larger drop than the nation's .49 percent drop.
When you look at the change in homicides over a 10-year span, the gap is wider between Chicago and the country as a whole.
Between 2005 and 2014, the nation saw a 14.88 percent drop in murders. In that same period, Chicago saw an 8.26 percent drop.
There have also been significant population changes the past 10 years. Though Chicago saw a minuscule increase in population between 2013 and 2014, the city has lost about 5.2 percent of its population over the past 10 years. Conversely, the nation's population totals have risen 7.54 percent.
In total, Chicago had 411 murders, 1,342 rapes, 9,804 robberies and 12,531 aggravated assaults in 2014, according to the FBI.
Though murders have seen small declines, robberies and aggravated assaults have gone down at a much faster rate.
Between 2005 and 2014, robberies and aggravated assaults dropped 38.59 percent and 30.16 percent, respectively, in Chicago. Nationally, robberies and aggravated assaults dropped 21.95 percent and 14.03 percent, respectively.
You can find the FBI's full Uniform Crime Report data, which details crimes in every American city, here.
Mason Johnson is a Web Content Producer for CBS Chicago. You can find him on Twitter.
