WASHINGTON, D.C.—Five years post-COVID research shows the pandemic “sent devastating shockwaves across the world,” according to a March 13 news release from the Center for American Progress.
Still, one consequence was unique to the United States: the largest single-year increase in the U.S. homicide rate ever recorded,” the news release stated.
A new report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) analyzes the prevailing theories surrounding the spike in violent crime and what helped to lower gun violence rates, coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring COVID-19 pandemic, the release explained. March 11 marked five years WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
“It’s critical to study this period in order to understand what most likely led to the increase in violence, and just as importantly, what protected people, such as commonsense gun safety laws and community-based public safety strategies,” explained Chandler Hall in the new release.
Mr. Hall is the associate director for Gun Violence Prevention at CAP and author of the report. CAP is a public policy research and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., that examines social and economic issues.
“We cannot return loved ones home who have been lost to this epidemic, but we can still honor them by taking these lessons learned and ensuring that our country never sees a spike in violence like the one we experienced in 2020.
Hence, it is imperative that local, state, and federal lawmakers make additional and sustained investments in the prevention programs that have been proven to make communities safer,” said Mr. Hall in the March 13 news release.
The CAP report found that between March 2020 and March 2021, the rolling monthly average of homicides in the U.S. rose by a staggering 31%. Every state with available data saw its firearm homicide rate increase between March 2020 and March 2021. Only one state, Oklahoma, did not experience a double-digit percent increase.
While most of the nation witnessed a concerning rise in gun violence, the report found that certain communities were hit particularly hard. This surge was largely concentrated in Black, Latino and low-income areas.
Alex Piquero, the acting chair of the Sociology and Criminology Department at the University of Miami, along with John K. Roman, examined CDC WONDER (a system for disseminating Public Health data and information)
Mortality data and discovered that firearm homicide rates reached their highest point in 2021 across all racial groups. However, the rate for Whites peaked at 4.3 per 100,000 people, whereas for Blacks aged 20 to 24, it exceeded 80 per 100,000—over 18 times higher.
Further, according to the report, research conducted by Everytown for Gun Safety revealed that from 2019 to 2021, disparities in gun violence victimization based on race and gender became more pronounced.
While the homicide rate increased for all racial groups during this timeframe, the rate of gun homicides among Black Americans surged the most significantly with a 48% rise.
Additionally, the impact of gun violence, particularly on children, was predominantly felt by Black youth, who experienced gun violence 4.44 times more frequently than their White counterparts during the pandemic.
“We have to understand that what drives most crime is poverty and mental health issues,” Dr. Wilmer Leon, political scientist, syndicated columnist and author, told The Final Call. “There’s an unfortunate stereotype about Black-on-Black crime or a crime in the Black community.
Crime in the Black community isn’t any different from crime in any other community. Crime is an event of opportunity. People tend to commit crimes in areas that are close to you, against those that are closest to you.
Although the rise in firearm homicides was most pronounced in metropolitan regions, counties across all levels of urbanization, including the most rural areas, saw nearly a 30% increase in such incidents.
From March 2020 to March 2021, states with the strictest gun regulations experienced the smallest uptick in gun homicides, whereas states with the most lenient gun laws saw the largest increases.
In the nation’s capital, according to Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) statistics, homicide rates went up every year since 2020 and peaked in 2023 with 274 homicides. The most recent data for 2024 showed a drop in homicides to 187. Jeffery Johnson is the vice president of the MPD Citizens Advisory Council.
He told The Final Call, “MPD made their presence known in communities where you would see more patrol cars in troubled areas. They also utilized a bill passed by the City Council about a year or so ago pertaining to drug-free zones. The police continued enforcing them.”
“These things added to the decrease in crime that we continue to see throughout the city. We also continued to educate our residents on not leaving items that can be potentially a target for someone to break into their vehicles.
We let young people know that their life was worth more than the thousand-dollar jacket they were wearing. We pushed education to our constituents in the city to let them be aware of what can happen when you wear those type of expensive items, or you leave those type of items in your vehicles.”
The COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread disruption in nearly every facet of life. Many Americans found themselves destabilized by extensive stay-at-home orders, widespread job losses, and the shutdown of schools and other essential local government services.
Most reported heightened stress levels as the pandemic began. Simultaneously, as people grappled with significant social and economic challenges, the availability of support options, unfortunately, dwindled to an unprecedented low.
Solutions to safety and security
Local government workers, including educators and those involved in the criminal justice system who fulfill essential social service functions, experienced substantial job losses during the pandemic. In the initial three months of the pandemic alone, over 1.24 million local government employees were laid off.
The challenges brought on by the pandemic’s onset—intensified by the reduction of governmental and community support systems—disproportionately affected young men, particularly in neighborhoods where levels of violence were already high and, therefore, may have contributed to the overall spike in gun violence.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has taught and warned Black people and others of the dangers that exist because of a lack of feeling safe and secure due to circumstances they may face.
“The world in which we live is far from being safe,” Minister Farrakhan said in a message titled, “Making a Safe Community,” he delivered June 3, 1995, at Civic Center Symphony Hall in Phoenix, Arizona.
“This un-safety, or the lack of security of this world, is due to lies, deceit, injustice, and hollow promises made with no desire to fulfill, so the hopes of the people are dashed. And as hope gives way to despair, the world now has reached the zenith of lies, filth, indecency and murder.
Well, when you have a society filled with liars, thieves, murderers—people who speak out of their mouth what they never intend to fulfill: When you have such filth and indecency in its wake, it brings dire consequences. And the consequences of evil and injustice are exactly what we see: An unsafe world,” Minister Farrakhan stated.
During his message, Minister Farrakhan explained the importance of people working to make neighborhoods safe and decent places to live for all people who desire to be safe.
“You can’t make a safe community if you make a safe Black community and you don’t make a safe Indigenous community, if you don’t make a safe White community—then you haven’t made the community (safe) at all.
Either we all are going to be safe, or we have to separate those who don’t want to live in a safe community and are not willing to do that which makes community safe.
Both Bible and Holy Qur’an talk about separation of people, not necessarily based on their color but based on their desire to live according to certain immutable laws; that if we live by these laws, we make ourselves safe and we make others safe from harm,”
Minister Farrakhan said. He also reiterated the clarion call to Black people and in 2015, called for 10,000 fearless men and women in cities around the country to make their communities safe and decent places to live. Men and women of the Nation of Islam and other groups work tirelessly to do their part as community servants and try to make a difference.
Student Fruit of Islam (F.O.I.) Captain Andrew Muhammad of Mosque No. 6 in Baltimore has worked in his community as a member of the Nation of Islam. He also works to reduce crime by working with and mentoring young people.
“We engaged all the areas in the city of Baltimore and reached out to young adults. What do you need to get off the streets? That’s what it boils down to.”
He works closely with Baltimore City Schools, the police department, the Baltimore City School Police and the mayor’s office, he explained.
“We were also able to mediate a lot of beefs and conflicts inside the prisons and the juvenile facilities. A lot of tension and services were geared towards the young men, who were considered potential shooters. We’ve been working with the Department of Juvenile Services and the Department of Corrections.
We’ve also been feeding the community six times a week. That allows us to take our 24-foot truck into the community and we feed them quality produce, vegetables, and meat.” Final Call staff contributed to this report.