A State Policy Guide for Solving More Violent Crime

How State Policymakers Can Increase Violent Crime Solve Rates  

State leaders across the country are grappling with public concern about crime and violence. In 2024, over 60% of Americans reported being worried about crime and dissatisfied with current crime prevention policies.¹ This is despite national violent crime rates in 2024 declining to their lowest level in more than a decade, according to our September 2025 analysis of FBI Uniform Crime Reporting statistics. 

However, in 2024, just 44% of violent crimes reported to law enforcement nationally were solved.² This means that more than 50% of people who reported a violent offense to law enforcement never received closure for their case. At the state level, less than half of violent crimes reported to law enforcement resulted in an arrest in 28 states and the District of Columbia.³ 

Solve Rate of Violent Crime in the United States⁴

Solve Rate of Violent Crime in the United States by Offense⁵

According to our analysis of the FBI Supplemental Homicide Report, solve rates by demographics from 2020 to 2024 showed that homicides committed against  

• Black people were 25 percentage points less likely to be solved than homicides committed against White people, 

• Men were 17 percentage points less likely to be solved than homicides committed against women, and  

• People under age 34 were 12 percentage points less likely to be solved than homicides committed against people over age 45. 

When crime goes unsolved, it signals to people that public safety is not a priority and that the criminal justice system is unable to deliver justice for victims and their families. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to improving public safety, prioritizing solving more violent crime is an important and achievable step toward reducing crime and improving public trust.

This guide is intended to give state leaders options for supporting efforts to solve more violent crime and provide examples of policies that states and cities around the country have developed to increase solve rates and improve public safety. The guide covers four main areas:

1. Bringing people together to solve more violent crime
2. Tracking solve rates and underlying factors related to unsolved crime
3. Strengthening local investigations by enhancing state-level support
4. Investing in supporting people who experience and witness crime

In October 2024, with the support of Arnold Ventures, the CSG Justice Center brought together a group of 30 researchers, criminal justice system practitioners, advocates, and policymakers for 2 days of conversation focused on violent crime solve rates. The topics discussed included furthering the research base on what impacts violent crime solve rates, practical experiences in law enforcement, and building buy-in for policies designed to improve solve rates. The insights provided by the group were instrumental in the development of this guide.  

1. Bring people together to solve more violent crime.

Responding to and investigating violent crime is most often the responsibility of local criminal justice system agencies working with the communities they serve. But public safety is a collective effort, and state policymakers are uniquely positioned to help bring people together to better understand and tackle the issue of unsolved violent crime and improve public safety.

Policy Plays

The ability to convene people is a powerful tool for elected officials. Bringing together professionals who work in the criminal justice system, people working to address community violence, and people impacted by crime can provide valuable insight into why violent crime goes unsolved. When people come together around the shared desire to make communities vibrant places to live and work, collective action can lead to smart policies that build safer communities.

 Examples of how state leaders can bring people together include the following:

• Conducting listening sessions in communities in your district
• Holding legislative hearings on violent crime and solve rates
• Establishing a working group of community leaders and criminal justice professionals

People who may have helpful perspectives include the following:

• Local criminal justice agency leadership such as police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, and court personnel
• Nonprofit executives and program managers operating community violence intervention and prevention initiatives
• Researchers from statistical analysis centers, colleges, and universities who study, or have studied, crime trends in the state
• Members of the clergy and other religious leaders serving communities impacted by violence
• Victim assistance providers operating programs that provide victim advocacy services and supports
• People who live in areas with low solve rates, high crime rates, or both

Key questions for stakeholders to consider together may include the following:

• Which areas or communities experience high crime rates, low solve rates, or both?
• How do solve rates vary among different law enforcement agencies based on case characteristics such as offense type?
• What factors contribute to distrust of the criminal justice system, and how does this distrust affect collaboration between community members and law enforcement in solving violent crimes?
• How can criminal justice system professionals and other community leaders work to build or rebuild trust in the system’s ability to make communities safer?
• What role do prosecutors, courts, and other system partners play in solving more violent crime?
• How do staffing, communication, and resource challenges in the justice system impact solve rates?
• Are there strategies, practices, or policies implemented in areas with higher solve rates that can be replicated in communities with lower solve rates?

Policy in Action

Led by Empower Omaha, the Omaha 360 Violence Intervention and Prevention Collaborative illustrates the power of bringing together people from all sectors of the community to create stronger relationships between police and community. The collaborative focuses on holistic approaches to violence prevention, intervention, and enforcement. In 2019, the Omaha Police Department reported that the city’s homicide rate was the lowest it had been in nearly 40 years, and the solve rate for murders hit a high of 90 percent.⁸

2. Track solve rates and underlying factors related to unsolved crime.

Policy can’t fix what isn’t measured well. Criminal justice system data can be hard to get, comes from a wide variety of sources, and is often imprecise. Better data on crime and accountability can help policymakers diagnose public safety challenges and begin to consider solutions. However, such data is often not publicly available or is delayed.

Solve rates are one measure of criminal justice system effectiveness, but they’re also imperfect because of the simplistic nature of how they’re calculated. The formula for calculating solve rates is the number of cases with arrests, or that are closed due to exceptional means, divided by the number of crimes reported. A case can be closed for exceptional means when a suspect has been identified but circumstances outside law enforcement’s control prevent an arrest from being made (for instance, if the suspect dies).⁹ As a result of this calculation method, crimes that happen in the last week of December 2024 but aren’t cleared until January 2025 would potentially decrease the solve rate in 2024 and artificially increase the solve rate for 2025.

Policy Plays

State leaders play a pivotal role in making sure solve rate data is collected and reported as aggressively as the issue demands.  

• Ensure existing solve rate data is complete and publicly available.
  • Support full compliance with federal and state crime reporting by allocating funding to enhance or replace inadequate and inefficient case management systems used by law enforcement agencies.
  • Increase staffing within the state’s Uniform Crime Reporting office to help agencies submit accurate and timely data.
  • Regularly publish solve rate data by violent offense including arrest rates, charge information, and demographics on a centralized website accessible to the public.
• Expand solve rate data collection to better understand the issue.
  • Include the date of the offense in solve rate reporting to measure the outcome of crimes reported to law enforcement more precisely. Require solve rate data to distinguish between cases that were closed due to an arrest versus those that were closed due to exceptional means.
  • Collect and publish data on non-fatal shootings.
  • Consider collecting data on other key system functions that impact solve rates including victimization rates, convictions, court backlogs, and crime lab processing times.
• Dive deeper into available data.
  • Invest in establishing research partnerships designed to better understand violent crime and solve rate trends in jurisdictions throughout the state.
  • Enlist your state in joining the Justice Counts initiative, a nationwide coalition of state and local agencies adopting a common set of metrics to provide key insights on system trends, operations, and outcomes across all criminal justice sectors.

Policy in Action

The New Orleans City Council has a dashboard that measures the arrest rate for murders and non-fatal shootings based on the number of offenses that took place each year divided by the number of offenses reported in the same year.¹⁰ The dashboard gives the New Orleans City Council insights to make data-driven policy and helps them inform the public about trends in their community.¹¹

In 2021, the Dallas Police Department worked with criminologists to develop a Violent Crime Reduction Plan. Criminologists identified the areas in the city that experienced the most crime. Police then used hotspot policing tactics in those areas. After only one year of implementation, violent crime had dropped by an average of about 11 percent in those hotspots.¹²

3. Strengthen local investigations by enhancing state-level support.

States often have several hundred law enforcement agencies¹³ operating across different jurisdictions. These agencies face distinct challenges in solving violent crimes due to variations in resources, capacity, and training. Smaller, rural jurisdictions may struggle to address even minimal increases in violent crime due to limited resources, infrastructure, and experience.

In addition, as crime characteristics and investigative tools evolve, agencies face a growing need to modernize. With more information available than ever on ways to improve investigative effectiveness—especially for homicides—state-level agencies are uniquely positioned to offer centralized support and address critical gaps.

Policy Plays

States can strengthen local investigations by enhancing state-level support.

• Establish a statewide unit to support cold case investigations or increase assistance for active local investigations, particularly in rural areas.
• Develop statewide training and technical assistance on investigatory best practices and incorporate them into existing training curricula or through a detective academy.
• Review opportunities to integrate investigatory best practices into existing state-level certification and standards.
• Task an office in a statewide public safety agency with addressing unsolved violent crime. Duties could include managing a statewide cold case database and analyzing the characteristics of unsolved cases.
• Target grant funds to support evidence-based approaches to solving more violent crime, including the following:
  • Investigative capacity
  • Civilian personnel including crime analysts and victim/witness coordinators
  • Law enforcement and community partnerships
  • Technology and training to modernize investigations
  • Development and implementation of investigative best practices
  • Coordination of information sharing
• Understand state crime lab turnaround times for processing evidence, including digital evidence, and invest in additional personnel, training, and technology to address any backlogs and inefficiencies.

Policy in Action

In 2022, only about 40 percent of violent crimes in Arkansas led to an arrest.¹⁴ To address this, the Arkansas legislature passed Act 775 in 2023, creating the Violent Crime Clearance Grant Fund. This bipartisan initiative aims to help law enforcement solve more violent crimes by enhancing investigatory capacity, fostering community engagement, and improving technology and data systems.

Ohio invested $10 million in 2022 in crime labs across the state to address backlogs and increase the speed of evidence processing.¹⁵ Funding was used for personnel, new equipment, information tracking systems, training, and technology. The funding significantly reduced backlogs and led to 11 state labs receiving an additional $3.4 million in 2024.¹⁶

4. Invest in supporting people and communities who experience and witness violent crime.

Trauma is a cycle that shapes peoples’ responses to violent crime and can perpetuate offending and victimization.¹⁷ Ensuring that individuals and communities that experience trauma are connected to relevant supports and resources is critical to breaking cycles of violence. Building trust in the justice system requires the system to be responsive to the needs of people and communities impacted by violence.

In 2024, federal funding for states from the Victims of Crime Act decreased by more than $500 million¹⁸—a 42 percent reduction from 2023.¹⁹ State legislatures can step in and fill this gap to maintain or enhance support and services for people and communities that experience violence.

Policy Plays

Investing in support for people who experience and witness crime should be a priority for state policymakers. Providing services for victims and witnesses can encourage cooperation, establish trust, and facilitate healing.    

• Invest in coordinated system response programs that “promote survivor-centered healing and removes barriers to care” by coordinating advocacy and support across complex needs and systems that people who experience crime must navigate.²⁰ Family and multiagency justice centers provide co-located multidisciplinary services by professionals from community-based organizations (CBOs) and system-based criminal justice agencies.²¹
• Task an office within a state public safety agency to review and report on cases involving people from culturally specific communities and invest in providing support that is culturally appropriate, responsive, and relevant to people in communities experiencing high rates of violence.
• Invest state money to support victim/witness coordination and CBOs that provide victim assistance to localities with high crime, low solve rates, or both. Make equivalent grant awards between system-based agencies and CBOs in identified areas. Gather data to help evaluate the effectiveness of investments.
• Establish or expand victim/witness services in local criminal justice agencies such as law enforcement, prosecution, and district or magistrate courts.
• Expand state victim compensation programs by making more people eligible for and reducing barriers to receiving compensation.

Policy in Action

Since 2001, 12 states have launched trauma recovery center (TRC) programs; 54 total programs are now participating members of the National Alliance of Trauma Recovery Centers.²² According to a 2007 analysis of these programs in California, clients using TRC services were 44 percent more likely to cooperate with the district attorney to solve crimes than people accessing traditional services.²³

According to the National Alliance of Family Justice Centers’ (NAFJC) 2023 annual report, there were 65 centers affiliated with NAFJC operating in 14 states.²⁴ California,²⁵ Louisiana,²⁶ and Oklahoma²⁷ have passed bills defining family justice centers and describing personnel and services available at centers operating in those states.

In 2022, New Mexico Senate Bill 12 created the position of missing indigenous persons specialist within the attorney general’s office. The specialist is required to compile reports of pending missing indigenous persons cases, including the status of such cases; the clearance rate of investigating agencies responsible for tracking missing indigenous persons cases; and an analysis by year of the characteristics of missing indigenous persons. The bill also created a program within the attorney general’s office to help identify, report, and find missing indigenous people and appropriated $1 million for it.²⁸

The Iowa Department of Justice makes grant awards to CBOs that provide victim assistance to culturally specific populations throughout the state of Iowa. Funding for these programs ensures that culturally relevant victim services are available to people in languages they speak and by people with similar backgrounds and experiences.²⁹

In 2023, Ohio invested $20 million in support for survivors of domestic violence. Beginning in 2019, more than 25 percent of the Ohio Domestic Violence Network’s member programs reported having to turn away survivors seeking assistance with a protection order due to lack of available staff. Money appropriated by the legislature helped close a severe and prolonged gap in services.³⁰

In 2022, the Pennsylvania legislature passed HB 2464, which made several changes to the state’s crime victim compensation program. One change eliminated a requirement for homicide cases. Previously, when family members filed claims for counseling services or funeral expenses, the program had to consider the conduct of the deceased victim when determining eligibility. This consideration is no longer required.³¹ 

How much violent crime goes unsolved in your state?

For state-specific data and analysis of violent crime and solve rates, visit the CSG Justice Center’s 50-state crime data webpage and click the dropdown menu to select your state.

If you would like to meet with our team, contact Robert Hamill at [email protected].

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¹ Megan Brenan, “Smaller Majorities Say Crime In U.S. Is Serious, Increasing,” Gallup, October 24, 2024, accessed December 2, 2024, https://news.gallup.com/poll/652763/smaller-majorities-say-crime-serious-increasing.aspx.

² Ibid

³ Ibid.

⁴ Ibid.

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ Ibid.

⁷ CSG Justice Center analysis of data from FBI Supplemental Homicide Report, November 2024.

⁸ Omaha 360 Violence Intervention and Prevention Network, The Empowerment Network, accessed December 3, 2024, https://empoweromaha.com/omaha-360/.

⁹ FBI, 2019 Crime in the United States, accessed December 17, 2024, https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/topic-pages/clearances.

¹⁰ Jeff Asher, “Fewer Crimes Usually Means Higher Clearance Rates,” Jeff-Alytics Substack, December 2, 2024, https://jasher.substack.com/p/fewer-crimes-usually-means-higher.

¹¹ “Client Spotlight: New Orleans City Council,” AH Datalytics, Accessed February 4, 2025, https://www.ahdatalytics.com/client-spotlight-new-orleans-city-council/.

¹² Thomas Abt, “Tackling Crime Requires Local, Data-Driven Solutions,” Newsweek, September 9, 2024, accessed January 30, 2025, https://www.newsweek.com/tackling-crime-requires-local-data-driven-solutions-opinion-1948757#:~:text=Unfortunately%2C%20these%20national%20conversations%20tend,work%20from%20the%20bottom%20up.

¹³ Andrea M. Gardner and Kevin M. Scott, Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, 2018 – Statistical Tables (Washington, DC: United States Department of Justice, 2022), https://bjs.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh236/files/media/document/csllea18st.pdf.

14 CSG Justice Center analysis of data from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, October 2023.

¹⁵ “Governor DeWine Launches Ohio Crime Lab Efficiency Program to Eliminate Backlogs, Decrease Testing Turnaround Time,” Office of Governor Mike DeWine, April 27, 2022, https://governor.ohio.gov/media/news-and-media/governor-dewine-launches-ohio-crime-lab-efficiency-program-to-eliminate-backlogs-decrease-testing-turnaround-time-04272022.

¹⁶ “Governor DeWine Announces Additional Funding to Reduce Crime Laboratory Backlogs,” Office of Governor Mike DeWine, Governor March 8, 2024, https://governor.ohio.gov/media/news-and-media/governor-dewine-announces-additional-funding-to-reduce-crime-laboratory-backlogs.

¹⁷ National Institute of Justice, “Early Childhood Victimization Among Incarcerated Adult Male Felons” (Washington DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice, 1998), https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles/fs000204.pdf. 

¹⁸ OVC Formula Chart: FY23 Crime Victims Fund Allocation, Office for Victims of Crime, accessed December 17, 2024, https://ovc.ojp.gov/funding/fy-2023-voca-assistance-allocation.pdf.   

¹⁹ OVC Formula Chart: FY 2024 Crime Victims Fund Assistance Allocation, Office for Victims of Crime, accessed December 17, 2024, https://ovc.ojp.gov/funding/fy-2024-voca-assistance-allocation.pdf.

²⁰ “Membership,” National Alliance of Trauma Recovery Centers, accessed December 16, 2024, https://nationalallianceoftraumarecoverycenters.org/membership.

²¹ Hospital-based trauma recovery center programs, family justice centers, or multiagency justice centers are examples of these models. Learn more about the trauma recovery center model.

²² Ibid.

²³ Alicia Boccellari, Robert Okin et al., “State-Provided Crime Victim Services Do Not Meet the Mental Health Needs of California’s Disadvantaged Crime Victims” (San Francisco: Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco 2007).

²⁴ Alliance for Hope International, 2023 Annual Report (San Diego: The Alliance for Hope International, 2024).

²⁵ California AB-1623, 2013-2014 (enacted). 

²⁶ Louisiana House Bill No. 368, 2015 Regular session (enacted).

²⁷ Oklahoma Statutes §22-60.31.

²⁸ “AG Office for Missing Indigenous Persons,” New Mexico Legislature, accessed September 17, 2024, https://www.nmlegis.gov/Legislation/Legislation?Chamber=S&LegType=B&LegNo=12&year=22.

²⁹ “Current Funded Programs,” Iowa Department of Justice, accessed February 5, 2025, https://www.iowaattorneygeneral.gov/for-crime-victims/grants/current-funded-new-initiative-programs.

³⁰ Nadia Ramlagan, “After Years of Budget Cuts, Ohio Boosts Support for Domestic Violence Survivors,” Public News Service, July 25, 2023.

³¹ “Apply for Victim’s Compensation,” Pennsylvania Office of Victim Services, Accessed February 4, 2025, https://www.pa.gov/services/pcv/apply-for-victims-compensation.html#accordion-5dff828a4c-item-b0c6591702.