FBI releases new violent crime statistics - see how Valley trends compare

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has released new violent crime statistics for 2023, showing that crimes, including murder and non-negligent manslaughter, decreased nationally by 11.6% in comparison to 2022.
Other decreases in the year include rape - down 9.4% nationally - along with smaller decreases in aggravated assaults and robbery.
This is welcome news following increases seen across the U.S. during the pandemic.
In 2023, the U.S. violent crime rate was between 100.79 and 120.98 per 100,000 people. Ohio's range was higher coming in between 109.18 and 142.11.
When looking at the percentage of violent crimes based on the rate of incidents per population per 100,000, Ohio scored slightly over the national average except in December of 2023.
On the other hand, Pennsylvania consistently stayed well below the national average of violent crimes in 2023. The state's range was between 68.24 and 89.09 per 100,000.
Locally, violent crimes in some of the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys varied by community.
Here is a sampling of local violent crime stats in 2023 — which includes homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault — and how they compare incidents per 100,000 to state and U.S. numbers.
All violent crime rates reported by the population show Youngstown incidents were by far higher than Ohio and U.S. rates. They started in January 2023 at a rate of 250 people impacted per 100,000. The city reached its highest violent crime rate in May at 289.25 people and ended in November and December with incidents in the 220s.
Violent crimes in Warren exceeded Youngstown incident rates per 100,000 people. The data from Warren, which only has information through November, shows the rate of incidents at 348.11 per 100,000 in March of 2023, considerably higher than the Ohio rate for March of 122.94 or the U.S. rate of 112.54 incidents per 100,000.
In perspective, Dayton, which had a population of 746,000 in 2023, saw its highest rate of 335.85 incidents per 100,000 people in May 2023.
Below is a look at rate ranges per 100,000 people for other local departments:
- Mahoning County Sheriff: 11.69 - 128.57
- Austintown: 59.25 - 138.26
- Boardman: 134.09 - 242.88
- Columbiana County Sheriff: 24.65 - 62.9
- East Liverpool: 72.29 - 237.53
- Salem: 51.48 - 137.29
- Trumbull County Sheriff: 36.62 - 102.53
- Niles: 159.13 - 285.34
- Liberty Township: 58.97 - 168.48
- PSP Mercer County: 14.41 - 80.7
- Farrell: 0 - 359.8
- Hermitage: 18.12 - 84.54
- Sharon: 62.19 - 171.02
Car thefts in the U.S. peaked in June 2023 with a rate of 31.28 per 100,000. Ohio's car theft rate never surpassed the country's high, peaking at 31.09 in July 2023.
Youngstown's car theft rate peaked at 105.49 in July 2023 while Warren's rate peaked at 41.26 in March 2023.
The complete analysis is located on the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer.