The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released updated crime statistics, revealing that crime in Utah is on a decline overall but still above pre-pandemic levels. The data, based on voluntarily submitted reports from local law enforcement agencies, shows that 135 out of 147 Utah agencies submitted data for the year 2022.
According to the FBI, Utah experienced a 7.2% decrease in violent crimes and a 23.1% decrease in property crimes from the peak in 2020. Despite this positive trend, Utah’s crime rates remain higher than those before the pandemic.
The data indicates that Utah continues to have a lower rate of violent crimes compared to the national average. However, property crime rates have risen nationally, although Utah’s property crime rate is now below the national average for the first time in the past decade.
In 2020, Utah, like the rest of the United States, saw a significant increase in violent crimes. During the pandemic year, Utah reported a 10% rise in violent crimes compared to 2019. While the number of violent crimes has been steadily decreasing, it is still 2% higher than in 2019.
Richard Rosenfield, a criminal justice professor emeritus at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, attributes the drop in violence to the subsiding “stresses and strains” caused by the pandemic. He suggests that the return to normalcy and increased public presence make it more challenging to commit crimes due to the higher level of surveillance.
The full Utah crime statistics, along with nationwide data, can be found on the FBI’s website.
