More than 50% of violent crimes in Minnesota go unsolved

(ABC 6 News) – While violent crime in the U.S. is trending down, according to data from the FBI, more than half of all violent crimes reported to authorities in Minnesota went unsolved in 2022, according to new data from the Council of State Governments.

Those crimes include homicide, aggravated assault, robbery, and rape.

It’s part of a growing national trend, as more than 50 percent of violent crimes reported to law enforcement went unsolved in 38 states, per the study.

And in 6 states, over two-thirds of all violent crime went unsolved.

In 2022, 281 violent crime incidents per 100,000 residents were reported to police in Minnesota, according to the CSG’s state-by-state breakdown. This is 21 percent higher than the violent crime rate in 2012.

But in Southeast Minnesota, the numbers sit below the national, and even the state-wide averages. Rochester Police’s unsolved violent crime rate is 39 percent, Austin Police’s average comes in around 40 percent, and Fillmore County Sheriff’s is 38 percent.

Nationally, an estimated 63 percent of all reported violent crimes went unsolved, which represents a 5% increase since 2012, an all-time high.

This increase was observed across all violent crime categories with unsolved rates increasing 4 percentage points for homicides, 10 points for aggravated assaults, 11 points for rape, and 2 points for robbery.

There are also significant racial disparities in unsolved violent crime. The national homicide rate of Black victims has been persistently higher than the rate of White victims. In 2021, Black people died by homicide at a rate close to 8 times higher than White people. However, homicides of Black victims were twice as likely to go unsolved in 2021 as homicides of White victims.