New Missouri Violent Crime Data Released Shows Reason for Hope

If you try to be an optimistic person, I have a new report on violent crime in Missouri that might just give you additional hope. It's certainly not all good news, but there appears to be a silver lining to the storm cloud of violence in the Show Me State.

This new data doesn't come from a third party source. It's directly from the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The full data from 2023 shows that Missouri is at least trending in the right direction in regards to violent crime even if one incident is still too many.

The total number of reported violent crimes in Missouri for 2023 is 28,694.

This number includes Murder (consisting of murder and non-negligent manslaughter), Robbery, Aggravated Assault and Rape. While a tragically large amount, that's actually a decrease of 6.28% from 2022. Slowly, but surely, Missouri has now trended down for violent crime 3 years in a row.

Those using firearms continue to lead the way when it comes to violent crime incidents.

The new data from Missouri shows women continue to be the majority of victims of violent crime and the most common age of those arrested is between 25 and 34.

More good news when it comes to murder although it's hard to refer to even one loss of life as anything good. The murder rate in Missouri dropped over 10% in 2023 as the state continues to trend down over the past three years.

It's interesting that Missouri continues to see a decline in violent crime. Again, even one is too many, but I'll take improvement in a terrible category like this any day of the week.