Everyone wants to live in safe communities, and data show California continues to experience crime rates well below historical peaks. The property crime rate — the number of property crimes per 100,000 residents — was 2,273 in 2023, far below the peak of 6,881 in 1980. The violent crime rate was 511 per 100,000 in 2023, less than half the 1992 peak of 1,104.
Crime rates have ticked up in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Any rise in crime is concerning, but state leaders should avoid overreacting as crime rates remain at historic lows in California. Moreover, voters should be skeptical of efforts to use the ballot box to roll back justice system reforms by reinstating the costly and ineffective mass incarceration policies of the past.
Instead of resurrecting failed, incarceration-focused approaches, state leaders must advance strategies to reduce youth violence, strengthen families and communities, and target the longstanding structural barriers to opportunity — such as poverty and housing instability — that disproportionately impact Black, Latinx, and other Californians of color.
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