Virginia Violent Crime Fell Nearly 6% in 2025, State Police Report Shows

Violent crime in Virginia declined in 2025, with fewer reported victims of homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault than the year before, according to new statewide crime data released by Virginia State Police.

The latest figures are available through the Virginia Crime Statistics Dashboard, a new online system that replaces the traditional annual printed version of the Crime in Virginia report. The dashboard updates as law enforcement agencies submit or revise case information, giving the public access to crime data for towns, cities, and counties across the Commonwealth.

At the time of the release, Virginia recorded 18,693 victims of violent crime in 2025. That marked a 5.9% decrease from 2024.

Violent crime in the report includes murder, rape, sodomy, sexual assault with an object, robbery, and aggravated assault. State Police noted that the figures may change as agencies continue investigations and update their records.

The report showed one of the largest declines in homicides.

Virginia recorded 378 homicides in 2025, down from 439 in 2024. That was a 13.9% decrease.

Most homicide victims and known offenders were men between the ages of 18 and 44, according to the report. Nearly half of all homicides, 46.3%, occurred in a residence or home.

Firearms were used in 73.7% of the homicides reported statewide.

The findings provide a broad overview of serious crime across Virginia, and the new dashboard also allows users to review data by location and offense type. That includes information on burglary, fraud, hate crimes, and other categories not highlighted in the initial summary.

Motor vehicle theft also declined sharply in 2025.

The number of vehicle thefts and attempted thefts fell 21% from the previous year. A total of 8,890 vehicles were reported stolen in completed offenses, and 5,468 were recovered.

The stolen vehicles were valued at more than $122 million.

More than one-third of the vehicles, 36.3%, were taken from residences. The report did not provide a breakdown of how many were stolen from driveways, streets, garages or other residential locations.

Drug-related crime declined as well.

State Police reported a 6% overall drop in drug offenses during 2025. Methamphetamine was the most commonly seized drug, accounting for 22.6% of all drug seizures.

Cocaine ranked second, representing 15.5% of seizures.

The report does not measure crime only by arrests. Virginia uses an Incident-Based Reporting system that collects detailed information about each reported event, including the type of offense, the people involved, and other circumstances connected to the incident.

That system separates crimes into two broad groups.

Group A offenses include more serious crimes such as murder, sexual offenses, robbery, aggravated assault, property crimes, and drug offenses.

Group B offenses generally involve less serious crimes in which an arrest has occurred, including trespassing, disorderly conduct, and liquor law violations.

Local and state law enforcement agencies submit their crime information electronically to the Virginia State Police Data Analysis and Reporting Team. The figures are then compiled as Virginia’s official crime statistics.

The same information is also sent to the FBI for use in the National Crime in the United States report and the FBI Crime Data Explorer.

The move to a live online dashboard changes how the public can view statewide crime trends.

In past years, readers relied on a fixed annual report that reflected the data available at the time of publication. The new dashboard can be updated as police departments, sheriff’s offices, and other agencies submit new information or correct existing records.

That means the numbers may shift after their initial release.

State Police said the dashboard offers a more flexible way to examine crime trends and compare figures across communities. Users can view charts, tables, and visual summaries for individual offenses and jurisdictions.

The dashboard may also help local officials, researchers, and residents track changes over time without waiting for a new annual publication.

While the statewide numbers show declines in several major categories, the data do not mean every community experienced the same trend. Crime can vary widely between regions, and individual cities or counties may report increases even when the statewide total falls.

The 2025 report provides state leaders and law enforcement agencies with a broad picture of where crime rose or declined and which offenses remain a concern.

Homicides fell, but firearms were still involved in nearly three out of every four killings. Vehicle thefts dropped by more than one-fifth, but the value of stolen vehicles remained above $122 million. Drug crime also decreased, though methamphetamine and cocaine continued to make up a large share of seizures.

The Virginia Crime Statistics Dashboard is available at va.beyond2020.com/va_tops.