FBI says US murders dropped in 2022, but theft rose

(Reuters) - Violent crimes including murder and rape declined in the United States in 2022 from a year earlier, but property crimes rose during the same period, according to data published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday.

Murder and non-negligent manslaughter across the country decreased by 6.1% and rape by 5.4%, while larceny and motor vehicle theft rose by 7.8% and 10.9%, respectively, the agency said in its national crime report.

The uptick in property crime aligns with recent reports from major trade groups, who say organized retail crime has worsened "exponentially" since before the pandemic, prompting stores to take new security measures.

Although violent crime is trending downward, the 21,156 murders reported in 2022 are also well above pre-pandemic levels, according to FBI data. The number of annual reported murders never topped 18,000 during the 2010s, but jumped to 21,570 in 2020.

Crime was a major issue in last year's mid-term elections, with Republicans accusing Democratic candidates of undue lenience, even though data showed similar crime trends in states and cities led by officials from both parties.

The report released on Monday included some new crime categories, such as carjackings, which increased from an estimated 23,500 in 2021 to about 25,400 in 2022.

Attacks on law enforcement officers increased slightly, up 1.8% from 2021 to an estimated 102,100 in 2022, the report said.

Data for this year's national crime report was gathered from 83.3% of U.S. law enforcement agencies, a marked improvement from last year, when the FBI said changes to its data collection methods resulted in nearly half of all agencies failing to submit their full 2021 data in time to be counted.

(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Bill Berkrot)