Violent crime keeps falling in Boston and biggest U.S. cities
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Violent crime kept falling across many of the nation's largest cities through June, with homicides down 17.2% from the first half of 2025, according to preliminary data reviewed by Axios.
Why it matters: The decline now spans two presidencies — it began falling under President Biden after the pandemic-era surge, and has kept dropping under President Trump.
Zoom in: Crime in Boston is going down, but violence is getting worse.
- While the city mirrors the national plunge in murders, overall violent crime ticked up slightly.
- Homicides plummeted 52% in the first half of 2026, dropping from 21 to 10. Reported rapes also fell by roughly 24%.
Yes, but: Aggravated assaults jumped more than 7% (from 1,155 to 1,240), pushing the city's total violent crime numbers slightly higher than the same period last year, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association's (MCCA) survey.
Trump came into office casting America as being overrun by crime at a time when the national numbers were already declining dramatically.
- As that decline has continued during his watch, he's taken credit for it, often linking it to his deployment of the National Guard in cities such as Washington, D.C., and Memphis, Tenn.
By the numbers: An Axios analysis of the MCCA data on 66 large U.S. communities found drops in violent crime in the first six months of 2026 compared to the same period last year.
- Homicides fell 17.2%.
- Robberies dropped 16.6%.
- Rapes declined 6.2%.
- Aggravated assaults fell 5.7%.
- Taken together, the four categories were down about 8.3%, for roughly 14,200 fewer reported violent crimes, according to the Axios review.
Zoom in: The homicide drops are especially striking in several cities that have struggled with high levels of violence.
- D.C. reported 46 homicides, down 43.9% from 82 in the first half of 2025.
- Homicides in Memphis fell 43.7%, from 119 killings to 67, and 38.3% in Houston, from 154 to 95.
- Philadelphia recorded 83 homicides, down 27.2% from 114.
The intrigue: Aurora, Colo. — a city Trump falsely singled out as being overrun by Venezuelan immigrant gangs during the 2024 election — saw a 58.8% drop in homicides.
Caveat: Some of the biggest percentage drops came in places with relatively few killings to begin with — which can make the declines look particularly.
- Newark fell 64.7% from 17 to six homicides, Raleigh fell 63.6% from 11 to four, for example.
Yes, but: Some cities had relatively small homicide totals that were significantly higher than in the first six months of 2025.
- Honolulu jumped 85.7%, from seven homicides to 13.
- San Diego jumped 81.3%, from 16 to 29 — continuing the increase Axios identified in the first quarter.
Zoom out: Another major crime tracker is seeing similar trends in declining violent crime.
- A Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) analysis found homicides down 18% among 30 reporting cities in the first half of 2026. The group says the decline began in the second half of 2022.
- The finding is notable because crime has fallen across cities with different political leadership, policing strategies, economic conditions and levels of federal involvement, CCJ said.
What they're saying: "President Trump promised to make America safe again — and the data proves he is delivering faster and more decisively than any administration in history," the White House said in a statement.