Fewer than half of crimes in the U.S. are reported, and fewer than half of reported crimes are solved % of crimes Reported to police (BJS)
Most violent and property crimes in the U.S. are not reported to police, and most of the crimes that are reported are not solved.
In its annual survey, BJS asks crime victims whether they reported their crime to police or not. In 2019, only 40.9% of violent crimes and 32.5% of household property crimes were reported to authorities. BJS notes that there are a variety of reasons why crime might not be reported, including fear of reprisal or “getting the offender in trouble,” a feeling that police “would not or could not do anything to help,” or a belief that the crime is “a personal issue or too trivial to report.”
Most of the crimes that are reported to police, meanwhile, are not solved, at least based on an FBI measure known as the clearance rate. That’s the share of cases each year that are closed, or “cleared,” through the arrest, charging and referral of a suspect for prosecution, or due to “exceptional” circumstances such as the death of a suspect or a victim’s refusal to cooperate with a prosecution. In 2019, police nationwide cleared 45.5% of violent crimes that were reported to them and 17.2% of the property crimes that came to their attention.
Fewer than half of crimes in the U.S. are reported,  | and fewer than half of reported crimes are solved  | % of crimes  | Reported to police (BJS)  | Reported to and  | cleared by police (FBI)  | Violent victimizations  | Violent crimes  | 45. 5  | 40.9  | 40.9  | 45.4  | 32.5  | 32.1  | 17.6  | Property victimizations  | Property crimes  | 95  | '00  | '05  | '10  | '15 19  | '95  | '00  | `05  | 10  | '15 '19  | Note: BJS and FBI crime definitions differ for some offenses 2006 BJS  | estimates are not comparable with other years due to methodological changes.  | FBI figures including reflect percentage of crimes cleared through arrest or exceptional  | means including cases in which a suspect dies or a victim declines to cooperate  | with a prosecution.  | Source: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 