Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.
No.
For decades, most violent crimes reported to law enforcement in the U.S. have not been solved.
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance falsely suggested it was a recent phenomenon.
Alluding to Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, he said Aug. 20, 2024, in Kenosha, Wisconsin:
“Do you know that the gross majority now of violent crimes in this country go unsolved? … That is because of the leadership of our vice president.”
An April Pew Research Center analysis shows that in every year since 1993, the majority of reported violent crimes were not closed because of an arrest or other reason. The FBI defines violent crime as murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
The highest clearance rate was 50% in 1999.
The latest data show recent declines:
2017: 45.6%
2018: 45.5%
2019: 45.5%
2020: 41.7%
2021: Data unavailable
2022: 36.7% (lowest rate in past 30 years)
2023 data isn’t available until October.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
The Hill: Happening now: JD Vance speaks on crime at campaign event in Wisconsin
Google Docs: Pew Research Center reporting and clearance rates.xlsx
Pew Research Center: What the data says about crime in the U.S.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
