The FBI’s quiet revision of its 2022 crime report has revealed a shocking truth: violent crime actually surged by 4.5% under the Biden-Harris administration, despite months of claims that crime was falling. With thousands more murders, rapes, and assaults than originally reported, this update casts doubt on both the FBI’s data and the administration’s narrative of success.
In a quiet but significant revision, the FBI recently corrected its 2022 crime data, revealing that violent crime actually rose by 4.5% during President Biden and Vice President Harris’s second full year in office. This update contrasts sharply with previous reports and claims made by the administration.
On June 11, 2024, President Biden, speaking at a public event, took credit for a supposed decrease in crime. "You know, the year before I came to the presidency, the murder rate was the highest increase on record. Last year, we saw the largest decrease of murder in the history of... (inaudible)," Biden said, falsely claiming that his administration's policies led to historic drops in violent crime. He went on to assert that murders, rapes, aggravated assaults, and robberies all fell sharply under his watch. However, those statements have now been debunked.
When the FBI initially released its crime report for 2022 in September 2023, it claimed that violent crime had decreased by 2.1%, a figure the Democratic Party quickly adopted to counter Republican arguments, particularly Donald Trump’s assertions that crime was spiraling out of control under Biden's leadership. However, critics, including Breitbart News, pointed out gaps in the data, noting that thousands of police precincts had failed to report their statistics, making the report incomplete and misleading.
Now, months later, the FBI has updated those numbers, reflecting a much bleaker reality. Real Clear Investigations broke the story on October 16, 2024, noting that the new data includes an additional 1,699 murders, 7,780 rapes, over 33,000 more robberies, and 37,000 additional aggravated assaults—dramatically altering the picture of crime in 2022.
Carl Moody, a crime researcher from the College of William & Mary, expressed alarm at the scale of these revisions, noting that corrections of this magnitude are unprecedented in the 21st century. “From 2004 to 2020, revisions to the FBI’s crime data were minor, usually less than one percentage point,” Moody said. “The huge changes in 2021 and 2022, especially without an explanation, make it difficult to trust the FBI data.”
The revision now calls into question both the FBI’s crime reporting and the Biden administration’s public statements. For months, Democrats touted the original numbers as evidence that their policies were working, but the reality is far more concerning. While Biden and Harris claimed success in curbing violent crime, the revised data paints a different picture—one where crime was, in fact, on the rise during their watch.
This update comes amid increasing public frustration over crime in major cities, particularly those run by Democratic officials. High-profile incidents of violence, such as random attacks in cities like Portland, have further fueled the perception that crime is surging under the Biden-Harris administration.
With the updated FBI data now available, Republicans are likely to seize on this issue in the run-up to the 2024 election, accusing Biden and Harris of misleading the public on one of the most pressing concerns facing the nation. The revision could also shake public confidence in the FBI’s ability to accurately report on crime trends, with lingering questions about why such significant errors were made in the first place.
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