Homicides in California dropped by 14% in 2023. Guns were still the most used weapon by far

California had a 14.2% drop in the number of homicides reported last year as the state continued a recent downward trend, but guns are still overwhelmingly the most common weapon used to kill someone.

There were 1,892 homicides reported last year throughout the state, a decline from the 2,206 reported in 2022 and 2,361 ides in 2021, according to the 2023 Homicide in California report released Monday by the state Attorney General’s Office. It was among several criminal justice statistical reports released.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the statistical information is essential to understand, prevent and combat crime and encourage local groups, policymakers and law enforcement “to review the data and recommit to taking action.”

“We must continue to act to combat crime and keep our communities safe,” Bonta said in a news release. “While crime rates remain significantly below their historical highs, there is always more work to be done to protect public safety in our communities. To do so, we must have accountability and appropriate consequences for those who break the law.”

Sacramento also had a significant decline in the number of homicides last year, dropping to 38 in 2023 from 54 in 2022, 58 in 2021 and 43 in 2020. The number of homicides in 2021 was the most the city had seen since 2006.

The overall violent crime rate, including aggravated assaults, reported rapes and robberies, also trended downward.

Reported rapes in Sacramento, which had climbed from 102 in 2018 to 159 in 2021 and 184 in 2022, dropped to 130 in 2023. Aggravated assaults, which were up from 2,139 in 2018 to 2,893 in 2021 and climbed even further to 3,196 in 2022, dipped to 2,513 last year.

Sacramento had 1,052 robberies in 2018, a figure that dropped in the following two years but then rose to 1,245 in 2022 and reached 1,202 in 2023.

Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester has credited community groups carrying out intervention efforts as a key driver in the city’s violent crime reduction, along with her department’s strategy on using intelligence-gathering on targeting those committing most of the crimes.

Last year’s drop in homicides also translated to a drop in California’s homicide rate, falling 15.8% from 5.7 homicides per 100,000 residents in 2022 to 4.8 per 100,000 last year.

AG reports lay out gun prevalence

Gun violence was still the leading cause of homicides last year, as a firearm was used to kill in 72.8% of the homicides last year across the state, according to the report. Bonta’s office reported that 48.7% of last year’s homicide victims were killed by a friend or acquaintance; 29.5% were killed by a stranger; and 14.8% were killed by their spouse, parent or child.

About 137,400 guns with identifiable serial numbers were recovered by law enforcement agencies in the state from 2021 through 2023, according to the Crime Guns in California report. In those same three years, authorities recovered 36,000 guns without any recorded serial number.

The state gun report indicated that 34,419 of the confiscated serialized guns entered in the Automated Firearm System could be associated with a total of 1,597 distinct California firearm dealers. On average, each licensed dealer sold or transferred 21.5 firearms that were later identified as a gun used in a crime between 2021 and 2023.

The number of homicide arrests also dropped in California last year; a 7.5% decrease from 1,485 arrests in 2022 to 1,374 arrests for homicide in 2023.

While the number of homicides went down, the state’s violent crime rate went up 3.3%, from 495 per 100,000 residents in 2022 to 511 per 100,000 in 2023, according to the Crime in California report. Even with the slight increase, California’s violent crime rate remained significantly below the state’s all-time high of 1,104 per 100,000 in 1992.

California’s property crime rate dipped slightly; a 1.8% drop from 2,314 in 2022 to 2,273 in 2023. The state’s arrest rate increased 3% from 2,535 in 2022 to 2,611 in 2023. The number of full-time criminal justice employees — including law enforcement, prosecutors, investigators, public defenders and probation officers — increased by 0.6%, according to the state Attorney General’s Office.