from the it's-almost-as-if-they-want-more-crime dept This article is republished from  The Conversation  under a Creative Commons license. Read the  original article . The United States is experiencing one of the  steepest declines in violent crime  in modern history, including a murder rate at its  lowest point in more than a century . Homicides across 35 major American cities  fell 21% in 2025 , amounting to 922 fewer people killed. Robberies dropped 23%. Gun assaults declined 22%. Carjackings plummeted 43%. Yet the Trump administration has yanked hundreds of millions of dollars from the programs that  helped make those numbers possible . As a scholar  focused on how policy decisions and structural conditions shape crime in marginalized communities, I see a pattern forming that could put these historic gains at serious risk. ‘Wasteful grants’ In April 2025, the Department of Justice terminated  365 previously awarded grants .…