Study: Crime Rates Projected to Decrease in 2017

America's overall crime rate in 2017 is on track to become the second-lowest since 1990, a preliminary analysis showed Wednesday.

The Brennan Center for Justice report, which collected data from police departments in 30 of the largest cities in the nation, found the overall 2017 rate projected to decrease by 1.8 percent.

"If this estimate holds, 2017 will have the second-lowest crime rate since 1990," the Brennan Center's Ames Grawert and James Cullen wrote.

Violent crime rate is projected to decrease by 0.6 percent, "essentially remaining stable," they added, citing "stabilization" in crime in Chicago and declines in Washington, D.C.

Also, the murder rate for the year is projected to be 2.5 percent lower than 2016, with Detroit down 25.6 percent, Houston down 20.5 percent, and New York down by 19.1 percent.

Chicago's murder rate is projected to fall by 2.4 percent. In 2016, 762 people were murdered there, compared with 472 so far in 2017, the analysis found.

"The 2017 murder rate is expected to be on par with that of 2009, well at the bottom of the historic post-1990 decline, yet still higher than the lowest recorded rate in 2013," the researchers wrote.

Some cities, however, are still experiencing sharp localized increases in crime, most notably in Charlotte, N.C., which has seen 63 murders so far in 2017, on course to beat last year's final total of 67, the analysis found.

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