Violent crime has increased under the Harris-Biden administration, according to data from the Department of Justice published Friday — belying ABC News debate moderator David Muir’s correction of Donald Trump during his showdown with Kamala Harris Tuesday night.
The DOJ’s survey from the Bureau of Justice statistics is self-reported instances of violent crime over the last six months — meaning that it includes crimes that may not have been reported to police.
The annual National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) showed total instances of reported violent crime — including rape, robbery and aggravated assault — is up from 5.6 per 1,000 in 2020 to 8.7 per 1,000 in 2023.
The highest recent rate of violent crime was in 2022, when the survey tracked 9.8 instances per 1,000 people over the age of 12.
The rate of rape increased from 1.2 per 1,000 in 2020 to 1.7 in 2023, while robbery went from 1.6 per 1,000 in 2020 to 2.6 per 1,000 in 2023, and aggravated assault rose from 2.9 per 1,000 in 2020 to 4.5 per 1,000 in 2023.
The question of whether crime has increased in the Harris-Biden administration compared to Trump’s was a major point of contention in Philadelphia Tuesday night, when the 45th president charged that “crime in this country is through the roof.”
“President Trump,” Muir stepped in to say, “as you know, the FBI says overall violent crime is coming down in this country.”
The 2024 quarterly FBI report that Muir was likely referencing does not account for crimes that go unreported to police, but does show that violent crime decreased by 15.2% when comparing the first three months of 2023 to the same period this year.
The FBI statistics included murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault under violent crimes — but was far from a complete picture, as only 72% of the law enforcement population participated in the report.
Trump took a victory lap on Friday after the report was released, citing the Bureau of Statistics report during a press conference in southern California.
“You remember where David Muir tried to correct me that crime is rampant like never before?” Trump told reporters.
“I guess [the DOJ] probably watched the debate and they heard this foolish man, this foolish fool make that statement to me,” the 78-year-old added.
The NCVS also showed other forms of crime were up from 2019, including stranger violence (8.1 per 1,000 compared to 11.4 per 1,000 in 2023) and violent crime with a weapon (4.0 per 1,000 vs 5.3 per 1,000 in 2023.)
Motor car theft has also increased from 3.9 per 1,000 in 2019 to 6.1 per 1,000 in 2023.
John Lott, former Justice Department senior adviser for research and statistics, told The Post that there are multiple reasons the discrepancy between the FBI and DOJ numbers.
“There’s reasons why you could argue the number of crimes reported to police in the FBI data has gone down,” Lott said, pointing out that the number of law enforcement officers in cities like New York has “plummeted” over the past few years.
He added that the NCVS was set up decades ago to account for crimes that don’t get reported to the police.
“About 40% of violent crimes are reported to the police and about 30% of property crime are reported to police,” Lott went on, adding that the controversy boils down to a question of whether people care merely about reported crime, or “total crime.”
“My guess is people care more about total crime,” he said.
Friday afternoon, Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt called on Muir, the anchor of ABC’s “World News Tonight” to “issue an immediate public apology to President Trump for wrongly and rudely fact checking him on the debate stage.”
“This new data proves President Trump was right,” Leavitt added. “Violent crime is up and if Kamala is given another four years to implement her weak-on-crime, defund the police, no cash bail policies — America will continue to turn into a crime-ridden hellhole for illegal immigrants, Venezuelan gangsters, and drug dealers. ONLY President Trump will restore law and order. If Americans want to be safe, VOTE TRUMP.”
ABC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post.
