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Which U.S. cities had the largest year-over-year changes in specific violent crime categories (homicide, robbery, aggravated assault) in 2024–2025?
Executive summary
Available reporting does not provide a single, nationwide table listing which U.S. cities had the largest year‑over‑year changes in homicide, robbery, and aggravated assault for 2024–2025; instead, most coverage is city‑by‑city or from multi‑city samples (e.g., Council on Criminal Justice’s 29–40 city studies) that report overall trends (homicides down 13–17% in parts of the sample) rather than a ranked list of largest city changes [1] [2] [3]. Nationally, FBI and summary sources report violent crime fell roughly 4–4.5% in 2024, and many large cities reported homicide declines while a minority saw increases [4] [5] [2].
1. No single public dataset in these sources gives the exact “largest changes by city” for 2024–2025
None of the provided sources supplies a single, comprehensive ranking of cities by year‑over‑year percent change in homicide, robbery, and aggravated assault from 2024 to 2025; the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) reports city‑sample trends and mid‑year/year‑end updates across 29–40 cities but does not publish a simple “top increases” table covering all three offense categories for every U.S. city [2] [1] [3]. The FBI’s national report gives national totals and rates for 2024 but does not present a city‑by‑city 2024→2025 comparative list in the materials here [4].
2. What the Council on Criminal Justice studies do show
CCJ’s mid‑year and year‑end updates find many cities experienced declines in homicides and other violent crimes between 2023–2024 and in early 2025 sample months; for example, CCJ reported homicides were 13% lower in the first half of 2024 versus 2023 for the 29 cities in that study and the 30‑city mid‑2025 sample showed a 17% decline in homicides year‑over‑year for cities providing homicide data (representing hundreds fewer homicides) [3] [1]. CCJ also flags variation across cities — a minority saw homicide increases while most saw declines — but the reporting focuses on aggregate sample percentages, not a ranked list of largest city swings [2] [6].
3. National context: overall violent crime and murder trends in 2024
The FBI and other national organizations reported that violent crime fell about 4–4.5% in 2024 and that murder rates declined substantially versus recent peaks; the FBI’s “Reported Crimes in the Nation” materials show violent crime estimates down ~4.5% and convey an overall national decline in homicide compared with 2023 [4] [7]. Sentencing Project and related analyses position 2024 as a year of broadly lower violent and property crime relative to recent years [7].
4. City examples reporters singled out — illustrative but not exhaustive
Several major cities were repeatedly cited in coverage as having notable year‑to‑year homicide changes in 2024: Philadelphia saw a large drop (255 homicides in 2024 vs. 398 in 2023), while some cities such as Charlotte and Baton Rouge experienced increases [5]. Newsweek and Politico cite CCJ’s finding that six of the studied cities had homicide increases 2023→2024 while many saw decreases [6] [5]. These itemized city examples are illustrative; they do not constitute a full 2024–2025 ranking across the three specific categories you asked about (homicide, robbery, aggravated assault) [6] [5].
5. Robbery and aggravated assault: mixed city patterns
POLITICO’s review of large cities reported robberies fell in the 10 largest cities that released final or preliminary 2024 figures, but aggravated or felony physical assaults and sexual assaults rose in several of those cities — again illustrating divergent trends across offenses and municipalities rather than a single “most changed” list [5]. SafeHome’s mid‑2025 writeups for specific cities (e.g., Birmingham) call out aggravated assault rising nearly 10% in the first half of 2025 in that city, showing how local reporting flags specific category shifts [8].
6. Why you won’t find a neat nationwide leaderboard in these sources
Three key reasons: [9] CCJ and other analysts publish sample‑based, multi‑city trend reports rather than exhaustive city‑level rankings for every crime category [2] [1]; [10] the FBI’s national releases summarize countrywide totals and rates and rely on agency participation, but the city‑level UCR/NIBRS tables require cross‑referencing and are not presented here as a pre‑compiled 2024→2025 change list [4]; [11] local jurisdictions often release final or preliminary data on different schedules, producing coverage that highlights notable city examples rather than a single standardized ranking [2] [5].
7. How to get the exact city‑level rankings you asked for
Use primary city and state police year‑end and mid‑year reports plus the FBI city table (Table 8 or NIBRS city extracts) and compute year‑over‑year percent changes for each offense category; CCJ’s appendices identify which cities report monthly data and can help select comparable samples [2] [4]. Available sources do not include a ready‑made nationwide ranking across homicide, robbery, and aggravated assault for 2024–2025 [2] [4].
Limitations: this answer relies solely on the provided sources and therefore cannot invent a full city ranking that those sources do not publish; for city‑by‑city percent changes, consult local agency releases or the FBI/NIBRS city tables referenced above [2] [4].