Missoula researcher makes national headlines over FBI crime data

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) – If you’ve been watching national news this past week, Crime Prevention Research Center President Dr. John Lott, new FBI crime data released that has called into question the credibility of several major national news outlets.

I spoke late Thursday evening with Dr. Lott talked about what he uncovered and the impact that information had on national news.

Dr. John Lott released revised FBI figures showing rising crime rates

“Basically, what they (the FBI) ​​had previously claimed was that violent crime was down about 2.1 percent in 2022, but when you looked at the new data that they had it was up 4.5 percentand that’s a pretty significant change,” Dr. began. Lott.

Dr. Lott provided more current national crime figures.

“Here we are talking about it,” he said. “A net change of over 80,000 violent crimes. We’re talking about a change of 1,699 murders in one year. We are talking about over 7,000 rapes, over 33,000 robberies, over 37,000 aggravated assaults and 198,000 property crimes, including 54,000 motor vehicle thefts.”

Dr. Lott said the FBI audits show crime is increasing instead of decreasing

Dr. Lott’s criticism focuses on news media outlets that he said were selective about the numbers they chose to report.

“The reason I focused on it was because the media just wanted to cover it,” he said. “I think the only reason they were willing to report this and not the National Crime Victimization data is because it gave them the result they wanted. So when I saw that it was actually the data that they had used for last year, all of those headlines actually went in the opposite direction, not as dramatic as the National Crime Victimization Survey, but still positive. I decided to write it down at some point and try to explain to people what Real Clear Investigations was about.”

Dr. Lott said he spoke to a contact at a major news outlet and asked a simple question.

READ MORE: Missoula resident John Lott testifies before U.S. House of Representatives on gun violence charges

The Crime Prevention Research Center is headquartered in Missoula

“If you had prepared a report and thought you had made a mistake in the previous year’s data that changed it, let’s say, from negative to positive, would you have mentioned that in the press release? And he said, “Yes, of course we should have mentioned that we made a mistake.”

Dr. Lott asked an obvious question aimed at the national news media.

“If I told you, ‘Look, the FBI has been telling people for a year that crime has been down for a year, and it’s been a big part of the news, and now they’re admitting that it’s up over that period has. that they changed the way they counted these things. Wouldn’t you think that would be big news? I mean, last year there were all these headlines saying crime rates were going down, and now all of those headlines are wrong.”

Dr. Lott regularly appears on our KGVO Talk Back show to share his research and answer questions from our listeners.