SACRAMENTO, Calif. (PSN)— Sacramento police reported more than 31,700 criminal offenses in 2024, according to new FBI data released through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).
The city, with a population of about 526,670, recorded 9,787 crimes against persons, 19,024 crimes against property, and 2,949 crimes against society.
Among the most serious offenses, there were 47 homicide cases, including 45 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters, one negligent manslaughter, and one justifiable homicide. Police also reported 159 kidnappings or abductions and 31 human trafficking cases, with 26 involving commercial sex acts and five involving involuntary servitude.
In the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) / National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) framework, the category reported as “Murder and Nonnegligent Manslaughter” is defined as:
“The willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by another.”
Key distinctions in this definition:
- It requires intentional action — the offender must have willfully caused the death.
- It excludes deaths caused by negligence, accidents, or justifiable/self-defense situations.
- It covers first- and second-degree murder under most state statutes, but for federal reporting purposes, both are aggregated under this single category.
By contrast:
- Negligent Manslaughter (reported separately) is the killing of another person through gross negligence (for example, a fatal accident caused by reckless driving without intent to kill).
- Justifiable Homicide (also reported separately) refers to cases such as self-defense or killings by law enforcement in the line of duty.
So, Sacramento’s 45 cases of “Murder and Nonnegligent Manslaughter” in 2024 represent intentional, unlawful killings, not accidents or negligence.
Assault offenses made up the largest category of violent crime, with 9,185 cases. That total included 2,742 aggravated assaults, 5,704 simple assaults, and 739 intimidation cases. Officers also recorded 365 sex offenses, including 114 rapes, 47 sodomies, 32 sexual assaults with an object, and 163 other criminal sexual contacts.
According to the FBI’s NIBRS User Manual:
Aggravated Assault is “an unlawful attack by one person upon another wherein the offender uses a weapon or displays it in a threatening manner, or the victim suffers obvious severe or aggravated bodily injury involving apparent broken bones, loss of teeth, possible internal injury, severe laceration, or loss of consciousness.”
Key points include:
- It involves a weapon (firearm, knife, blunt object, etc.) or serious injury.
- The intent is to inflict severe bodily harm, not just minor injuries.
- It is more serious than Simple Assault, which covers attacks without weapons and without serious injury.
So in Sacramento’s 2024 FBI stats, the 2,742 aggravated assaults reported were cases where either a weapon was used or the victim suffered significant injury.
On the property crime side, theft and burglary dominated the numbers. Sacramento reported 8,519 larceny/theft cases, with the largest share being 3,868 in “all other larceny”. Police logged 2,332 thefts from motor vehicles, 1,447 shoplifting cases, and 603 thefts of vehicle parts or accessories. In addition, the city had 2,701 motor vehicle thefts and 2,191 burglaries.
Other notable categories included:
- 1,014 robberies
- 3,176 vandalism/destruction of property cases
- 859 fraud cases, with credit card fraud making up 267 incidents
- 155 arsons
- 277 stolen property offenses
Sacramento also recorded 1,978 drug/narcotics offenses, split between 935 drug violations and 1,043 drug equipment violations, as well as 875 weapon law violations.
The 2024 report is part of the FBI’s annual nationwide crime data release, which compiles statistics from thousands of law enforcement agencies across the country. The FBI cautions that crime numbers can be influenced by reporting practices, population changes, and law enforcement strategies, and should not be viewed as direct year-to-year comparisons without context.