Story at a glance:
- More Americans were murdered throughout the country in 2020 compared to 2019.
- In total, there were 21,570 murders in 2020, and 77 percent of the murders were committed with firearms.
- Among the additional 5,000 murder victims in 2020, at least 1,200 were white and at least 2,400 were Black.
Murder is on the rise in the United States.
More Americans were murdered throughout the country in 2020 compared to 2019, The Guardian reported, even as other crimes such as rape, robbery and other property-related crimes have fallen, according to FBI figures.
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Crime is up everywhere, regardless of small towns, suburban areas or large cities, and the nearly 30 percent rise in 2020 is the biggest increase in six decades.
“The FBI data is showing an increase everywhere,” Shani Buggs, an assistant professor at the University of California, Davis, who studies community violence prevention, told The Guardian.
Many Americans pinpoint large cities as a hub for violence, but for Davis, “It’s urban. It’s rural. It’s Democratic. It’s Republican.”
“You have mundane issues that are turning lethal because there is so much anger, and rage, and guns available,” she said.
In total, there were 21,570 murders in 2020, and 77 percent of the murders were done with firearms.
However, nothing surpasses the total murders in the early 1990s, including the nearly 25,000 murders recorded in 1991, USA Today reported.
There is merit to what Davis is saying; out of the 21,000 or so murders, about 4,000 or so stemmed from arguments, more than 1,900 came from crimes such as robberies and drug crimes, and at least 900 murders were gang-related crimes, although the largest category was unknown, The Guardian reported.
Among those affected by the increase of crime is the Black community, specifically men as the number of Black males murdered rose 31 percent, according to data on the victims whose race was recorded.
Among the additional 5,000 murder victims in 2020, at least 1,200 were white and 2,400 were Black.
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