from the it's-almost-as-if-they-want-more-crime dept

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

The United States is experiencing one of the steepest declines in violent crime in modern history, including a murder rate at its lowest point in more than a century .

Homicides across 35 major American cities fell 21% in 2025 , amounting to 922 fewer people killed. Robberies dropped 23%. Gun assaults declined 22%. Carjackings plummeted 43%.

Yet the Trump administration has yanked hundreds of millions of dollars from the programs that helped make those numbers possible .

As a scholar focused on how policy decisions and structural conditions shape crime in marginalized communities, I see a pattern forming that could put these historic gains at serious risk.

‘Wasteful grants’

In April 2025, the Department of Justice terminated 365 previously awarded grants .…