Six Reasons the Murder Clearance Rate Is at an All-Time Low
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American violence is resurgent. Gun murders rose to their highest figure on record in 2020, the last year for which we have complete data. While violent crime is rising, America’s police departments are struggling more than ever to bring the perpetrators to justice.
In the 1960s, more than 90 percent of all homicides were “cleared” by police, with an arrest or the identification of a dead suspect. But the clearance rate has declined in each of the past six decades. In the most recent data available from the FBI, the clearance rate hit an all-time low of just over 50 percent. That means that about half of all murders in the United States today go unsolved.
On the latest episode of my podcast, Plain English, I spoke with the crime analyst Jeff Asher to understand what’s driving the long-term decline in the clearance rate and why the police seem so bad at solving new murders. This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Derek Thompson: What is the clearance rate?
