U.S. crime clearance rate by type 2023| Statista

In 2023, murder and manslaughter charges had the highest crime clearance rate in the United States, with 57.8 percent of all cases being cleared by arrest or so-called exceptional means. Motor vehicle theft cases had the lowest crime clearance rate, at 8.2 percent.

What is crime clearance?

Within the U.S. criminal justice system, criminal cases can be cleared (or closed) one of two ways. The first is through arrest, which means that at least one person has either been arrested, charged with an offense, or turned over to the court for prosecution. The second way a case can be closed is through what is called exceptional means, where law enforcement must have either identified the offender, gathered enough evidence to arrest, charge, and prosecute someone, identified the offender’s exact location, or come up against a circumstance outside the control of law enforcement that keeps them from arresting and prosecuting the offender.

Crime in the United States

Despite what many people may believe, crime in the United States has been on the decline. Particularly in regard to violent crime, the violent crime rate has almost halved since 1990, meaning that the U.S. is safer than it was almost 30 years ago. However, due to the FBI's recent transition to a new crime reporting system in which law enforcement agencies voluntarily report crime data, it is possible that figures do not accurately reflect the total amount of crime in the country.

Crime clearance rate in the United States in 2023, by type

Characteristic	Percent of offenses cleared by arrest
Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter	57.8%
Aggravated assault	46.1%
Violent crime	41.1%
Robbery	27.6%
Rape	26.9%
Arson*	26.9%
Larceny-theft	15%
Burglary	14.4%
Property crime	13.9%
Motor vehicle theft	8.2%

0%5%10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%50%55%60%65%

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Release date

September 2024

More information

Region

United States

Survey time period

2023

Supplementary notes

Due to the FBI's transition to a new crime reporting system, not all law enforcement agencies submitted data to the FBI for 2023. As a result, figures may not accurately reflect the total number of offenses.

Figures shown for rape only include those reported by law enforcement agencies using the revised Uniform Crime Reporting definition of rape.

*Not all agencies submit reports for arson to the FBI. As a result, the number of reports the FBI uses to compute the percent of offenses cleared for arson is less than the number it uses to compute the percent of offenses cleared for all other offenses.

Data can be found in the Documents & Downloads section of the FBI's Crime Data Explorer, under 'Crime in the United States Annual Reports', by downloading the collection file labeled Offenses Known to Law Enforcement.

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