The U.S Experienced The largest Increase In The Nation’s Murder
Nikki Attkisson | Last Updated : October 9, 2021According to the Centers for Disease and Prevention in the United States, the country has just seen the largest spike in murder rates in contemporary history.
According to preliminary statistics from the CDC and Prevention’s National Library of Medicine Statistics, released early On Wednesday, the homicide rate in the United States increased by 30 percent between 2019 and 2020.
The U.S Experienced The largest Increase In The Nation’s Murder
It is the largest increase in killings ever documented in modern history, and it verifies, through public health data, a spike in homicides that had previously only been recognized through criminal records.
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the previous highest increase in the homicide rate in the United States was a 20 percent increase reported between 2000 and 2001 as a result of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
“It is the greatest rise in death data in 100 years,” said Robert Anderson, chief of the death statistics division at the National Center for Health Statistics.
In fact, the only time there has been a bigger rise since we began keeping track of these statistics was between 1904 as well as 1905. Also, that increase would have been most certainly at least partially the consequence of improved reporting, according to Anderson. “Over time, more states were added to what we refer to it as the death registration regions, and as a result, we were able to count fatalities in a greater number of locations. It wasn’t until 1933 that we had complete reporting from all 50 states.”
While the public rollout of the NCHS preliminary results did not provide a total number of murders from 2020, the FBI’s Crime Report recorded approximately 21,570 murders in total last year compared to an estimated 16,425 murders in 2019. While the NCHS initial data did not include a total number of murders from 2020, the FBI’s Unchanging Crime Report did.
The researchers at the National Center for Health Statistics intend to undertake follow-up analysis on the new mortality data in order to get additional insight into state-level statistics and the circumstances surrounding the homicides. For example, although the preliminary estimates do not record the different mechanisms of homicide, the researchers observed that preliminary estimates on gun-related deaths increased last year, rising from a percentage of 11.9 firearm percent of all deaths in 2019 to a rate of 13.6 firearm deaths per 100,000 people in 2020, representing a 14 percent increase.
Among the states where there were statistically significant changes, Anderson noted that just three states, Maine, New Mexico, and Alaska, appeared to have had a drop in homicides the year before Maine, New Mexico, and Alaska. Recently, the FBI issued its annual Unchanging Crime Report, which revealed that the number of killings climbed by over 30 percent from the previous year, making it the most significant yearly increase the bureau has seen since it began recording these crimes in the 1960s.
Dr. Georges Benjamin, general director of the National Public Health Association, said that the growing homicide rate in the United States is a worrisome danger to the nation’s public health, but that it is not surprising.
With over 15 years as a practicing journalist, Nikki Attkisson found herself at Powdersville Post now after working at several other publications. She is an award-winning journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit and worked as a journalist covering technology, innovation, environmental issues, politics, health etc. Nikki Attkisson has also worked on product development, content strategy, and editorial management for numerous media companies. She began her career at local news stations and worked as a reporter in national newspapers.