Better Crime Data, Better Crime Policy

Patterns of crime began changing dramatically in the summer of 2020 as the nation responded to the COVID pandemic and the police killing of George Floyd. The Council on Criminal Justice began tracking the trends, first in support of our National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice and then for our Violent Crime Working Group. By providing snapshots of trends in large cities that make data readily available, the reports have filled a yawning gap in the nation’s knowledge about what was actually happening – and not happening – with crime in real time.

In April 2023, CCJ launched the Crime Trends Working Group to continue the important work of grounding debates about crime and criminal justice reform in facts. Its mission is to explore and explain current crime trends, while building consensus for significant improvements in the nation’s capacity to produce timely, accurate, and complete crime data. With a diverse membership of expert producers and consumers of criminal justice statistics, the Working Group collects real-time crime data, identifies gaps in data collection and availability, and develops strategies to improve crime reporting nationwide as law enforcement agencies transition to a new federal reporting system.

The group is chaired by John Roman, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Public Safety and Justice at NORC at the University of Chicago. Members are leaders from academia, advocacy, law enforcement, government, and the public health sector; the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the FBI have designated liaisons to the group. Members meet on a rolling basis, and their discussions and findings are summarized and released in public bulletins and webinars.

The late criminologist Richard Rosenfeld, Curators' Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and former president of the American Society of Criminology, was the founding chair of the working group and the co-author of our crime trends reports. Rosenfeld, an eminent scholar who was a trusted resource for policymakers and an exceptional interpreter of crime patterns for the media, passed away on January 8, 2024. CCJ is deeply indebted to him for his contributions to our organization and the field.