Lethal violence on the rise in DC, new study indicates

Despite decrease in violent crime, 'lethality' is up: study

A new study has found that there are fewer acts of violence in the District.?But the crimes that are occurring are more deadly.

WASHINGTON - A new study has found that there are fewer acts of violence in the District. But the crimes that are occurring are more deadly.

Violent crime is declining nationwide and in the District. DC Police data shows that violent crime is down 26% and property crime is down 5%. 

But what is on the rise is the "lethality" of the violence—meaning disputes that used to lead to threats or fights are increasingly ending in gunfire and death.

What we know:

Here’s what that study from the D.C.-based Council on Criminal Justice found:

Homicides are increasing at a greater rate than aggravated assaults and robberies and the number of people carrying guns has increased as well. The data comes from 2012 to 2024, from 17 large U.S. cities, and of those, D.C. had the highest "lethality" level among those cities.

By lethality, they mean the number of homicides per 1,000 aggravated assaults and robberies.

Ernesto Lopez is one of the authors of this new study. 

"It’s a little…kind of tricky to wrap your head around, but if you wanted to just think of, right, the overall rate of violence as just being a pie, and homicide is one slice of that pie—then the slice of the pie that’s homicide has grown over time." 

Dig deeper:

The latest stats from D.C. Police show nearly all types of crimes are down this year: homicides, assaults with dangerous weapons, and robberies among them.

Only car thefts here in the District are on pace with last year’s numbers.

We asked D.C. councilmember Brooke Pinto about that new study. As chair of the Council’s Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, she has authored much of the city’s newest anti-crime legislation.

"Some of these incidents are happening indoors among people who know one another, and the proximity of those gunshots are more likely to lead to a death. And so our strategies have to be nimble. We have to shift. We have to intervene earlier when there are domestic violence incidents, for instance, or crew-based incidents where people know one another and then are leading to shooting.

Because our work cannot stop even though we see the positive trends going down. We have to stay focused, so everyone can be safe."

Overall, violent crime is down six percent this year here in the District. Property crime is down eight percent, according to MPD.