Carjacking and motor vehicle theft rates have increased substantially in recent years, while overall robbery has declined and returned to roughly pre-2020 levels, says the Council on Criminal Justice in a new report. Even with increases in reported carjacking from 2020 through 2023, long-term trends suggest that the recent carjacking rate was substantially lower than it was from the mid-1990s to the early 2020s. Like carjacking, robberies and motor vehicle theft have experienced large declines since the mid-1990s. In a sample of 10 large cities, eight had higher reported carjacking rates last year than in 2018. In the sample, the average carjacking rate was 20.1 (per 100,000 ) in 2018 and 37.9 in 2023.
Each of the 10 cities experienced an increase in motor vehicle theft, with the average rate rising from 475.6 in 2018 to 1070.5 in 2023, more than one vehicle stolen for every 100 residents. Only two cities experienced higher robbery rates, with the average rate decreasing from 306 in 2018 to 284.5 in 2023. From 2018 to 2022, a majority of carjackings involved a firearms and 28% resulted in victim injury, including death. In 2018, the rate of reported carjackings committed by adults (13.9 per 100,000 adults) was slightly higher than the juvenile rate (12.4 per 100,000 juveniles). Carjacking victims and offenders were disproportionately male and Black. The shares of victims and reported offenders who were male were unchanged (71% and 85%, respectively) from 2018 to 2022. From 2018 to 2022, the White carjacking victimization rate increased by 58% and the Black victimization rate increased 43%. The offending rate for White individuals committing carjackings increased 41%; for Blacks it increased 51%.