U.S. murder rates still up in 2021: CNBC

There were 6 percent more murders nationally in 2021 than in 2020, a troubling statistic, but it was modest in comparison with the prior year, when the U.S. murder rate climbed nearly 30 percent, a year-over-year record, reported CNBC in mid-August.

That big increase "was a complex combination of factors related to or potentially exacerbated by the pandemic but not inherently the pandemic itself," Jeff Asher, co-founder of data consulting firm AH Analytics, was quoted by the television network as saying.

The pandemic "placed the individuals who are at the highest risk of violence under enormous pressure, and they were already under pressure to begin with," said Thomas Abt, senior fellow on the Council on Criminal Justice.

"At the same time, it put the institutions that are responsible for engaging those individuals -- law enforcement, courts and community based workers - all under tremendous strain as well," added Abt.

The pandemic was a major catalyst in the rise in murder, but wasn't the only factor, noted the report which quoted Abt as saying that "there was a massive surge in legal purchases of guns during the pandemic. A larger share of those legally purchased guns were diverted into the hands of criminals more quickly than normal."