Homicide Victimization in the United States, 2023

• NCJ Number: 309889
• Author(s): Lizabeth Remrey, PhD, BJS Statistician
• Date Published: May 2025
• Publication Series: Homicide Trends in the United States
• Publication Type: Publication

Description

This report describes the number and rate of homicide victimizations reported by law enforcement agencies in the United States, including victim demographic characteristics, victim-offender relationships, the type of weapon(s) present, and the number of victims involved in the incident. 

Findings in this report are based on the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) and FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) Estimation Program for 2021 to 2023 and the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR).

Highlights

In 2023:

• The rate of homicide victimization was 5.9 per 100,000 persons. This marks a decrease from the rate of 6.7 per 100,000 in 2022.
• The male homicide victimization rate (9.3 per 100,000 persons) was 3.5 times greater than the homicide victimization rate for females (2.6 per 100,000).
• The homicide victimization rate for black persons (21.3 per 100,000 persons) was more than 6 times the rate for white persons (3.2 per 100,000).
• The largest percentage of homicide victimizations (39%) was committed by someone outside the family but known to the victim.