On Tuesday, New York became the first US state to declare gun violence, which is a huge concern among the American population, an emergency. Governor Andrew Cuomo also directed funds aimed to support this programme to abate the violent crime in the state.

US President Joe Biden, who has always been an advocate of stern gun control laws, has also promised the countrymen that more and more efforts will be made in this regard.

American leaders addressing violent crime, especially gun related wrongdoings an emergency crisis, points to the fact and also raises a serious question. Is America becoming aggressively violent?

In this article, we will attempt to analyse the state of violence in the US with the help of some data.

What is a violent crime?

Violent crime is any at that involves the use of unnatural ways to harm the other person. However, this is just a raw idea. In the United States, the police department considers violent crime with some specific acts.

Violent crime consists of five criminal offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and gang violence; property crime consists of burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson.  

Is violent crime really surging in the US?

According to FBI data, overall violent crime in the US had risen by about 3% in 2020. But the same data also reveals that while the annual data surged by 3%, a significant downward trend has been observed in violent crimes if compared to the early 1990s.

By this, we can conclude that present concurrent are better than the early 1990s but at the same in the past year, growth in such crime is being reported

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Which American city is the violence topper?

Shooting incidents in Chicago are up by 15% from the same point last year and are more than double the level they were at two years ago. New York has seen a nearly 38% rise in shooting incidents for the period from the beginning of January up to 4 July compared with the same period in 2020.

Going by this trend, New York appears to be the most violent city in the US while Chicago is a close second.

It should be noted that the aforementioned cities are among the most developed in the United States.