Crime in New York City

Crime rates in New York City have been recorded since at least the 1800s.^[1] The highest crime totals were recorded in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the crack epidemic surged,^[2][3] and then declined continuously from around 1990 and throughout the 2000s.^[4] As of 2023^[update], New York City has significantly lower rates of gun violence than many other large cities.^[5] Its 2022 homicide rate of 6.0 per 100,000 residents compares favorably to the rate in the United States as a whole (7.0 per 100,000) and to rates in much more violent cities such as St. Louis (64.4 per 100,000 residents) and New Orleans (53.3 per 100,000).^[6]

During the 1990s, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) adopted CompStat, broken windows policing, and other strategies in a major effort to reduce crime. The drop in crimes has been variously attributed to a number of factors, including these changes to policing, the end of the crack epidemic, the increased incarceration rate nationwide,^[2][3] gentrification,^[7] an aging population, and the decline of lead poisoning in children.^[8]