Attorney General Bonta Releases California Criminal Justice Statistical Reports for 2025

Policy, policing, and community intervention have positively transformed California public safety

OAKLAND - California Attorney General Rob Bonta today announced the publication of the California Criminal Justice Statistical Reports for 2025, a suite of annual reports covering Homicide in California, Crime in California, Use of Force Incident Reporting, Juvenile Justice in California, and Crime Guns, Inspections, and Handguns in California. The information contained in the reports reflects statistics for 2025 as submitted by California law enforcement agencies and other criminal justice entities. The reports provide policymakers, researchers, law enforcement, and members of the public with vital statewide information on criminal justice statistics in California to support informed policy choices based on data and analysis and help protect the safety and well-being of all Californians.

"Transparent, accurate data helps us understand what is happening in our communities and where more work is needed," said Attorney General Bonta. "These numbers prove that the investments in community violence intervention over recent years and the commitment to effective partnerships and collaboration between federal, state, and local governments, law enforcement agencies, and community partners are working. Our policing has gotten smarter, more organized, and more coordinated. We've created successful organized retail theft programs, human trafficking and fentanyl task forces, and programs targeting violent criminals. These partnerships have led to more success, more accountability and more arrests, which we know is a much better deterrent than disproportionately lengthy and expensive sentences. I want to thank the state and local law enforcement agencies, community-based organizations, gun safety advocacy groups, and state and local leaders who work day in and day out to keep our communities safe. At DOJ, public safety is priority number one and always will be."

"Every Californian deserves to feel safe in their community," saidGovernor Gavin Newsom. "These historic results show that when we invest in our communities, support law enforcement, crack down on organized crime, and expand prevention and intervention efforts, we can save lives and improve public safety. California is proving that smart, sustained investments are making a real difference for families across our state."

DOJ publishes these annual reports to provide the public with statewide criminal justice statistics and to support data-informed decision-making. California is continuing its transition from the decades-old legacy reporting system to the California Incident-Based Reporting System (CIBRS), which will allow agencies to report more detailed information about individual incidents once fully implemented. While that transition continues, the format of this year's reports remains consistent with prior years.

CIBRS is designed to provide policymakers, law enforcement, researchers, and the public with more context and specificity about crime and public safety trends in California. Law enforcement agencies across the state are at different stages of moving to the new reporting system, and DOJ continues to work with agencies during the transition.

To support completeness and accuracy during this transition period, DOJ continues to accept data submitted through both the legacy system and CIBRS. As a result, the 2025 reports include information collected under both reporting methods. The Attorney General encourages researchers, academics, policymakers, and members of the public to review the data and use it to inform public discussion about California's criminal justice system. It is important to note that not all agencies were able to submit a full year of data for 2025. For additional context, please reference the "Understanding the Data, Characteristics and Known Limitations" sections in the Crime in California and Homicide in California 2025 reports.

Highlights and brief descriptions from each report released today are available below:

Homicide in California 2025 includes data on reported homicides and related information, including victim demographics, homicide arrests, persons sentenced to death, peace officers feloniously killed in the line of duty, and justifiable homicides. Some key findings include:

• In 2025, the homicide rate decreased 18.6%, moving from 4.3 per 100,000 people in 2024 to 3.5 per 100,000 people in 2025, which is a record low.
• California reported 1,374 homicides in 2025, a 17.5% decrease from the 1,666 homicides reported in 2024.
• Firearms remained the most common weapon used in homicides. In cases where the weapon was identified, 66.9% of homicides in 2025 involved a firearm.
• Among homicides where the victim's relationship to the suspect was identified, 49.4% of victims were killed by a friend or acquaintance; 27.4% by a stranger; and 18.0% by their spouse, parent, or child.
• For homicides with a known contributing circumstance, 40.1% resulted from an unspecified argument, 19.8% were gang-related, 14.1% were domestic violence-related, and 3.5% occurred in connection with the commission of a rape, robbery, or burglary.
• There were 1,269 homicide arrests in 2025, down 2.8% from the 1,305 homicide arrests reported in 2024.

Crime in California 2025 summarizes statewide statistics on reported crimes, arrests, dispositions of adult felony arrests, adult probation, criminal justice personnel, civilians' complaints against peace officers, domestic violence-related calls for assistance, anti-reproductive rights crimes, law enforcement officers killed or assaulted, and violent crimes against senior citizens. Some key findings include:

• The statewide violent crime rate decreased 10.2% in 2025, from 480.3 per 100,000 people in 2024 to 431.1 in 2025, remaining well below California's historical peak of 1,103.9 recorded in 1992.
• The property crime rate decreased 14.3%, from 2,082.7 in 2024 to 1,785.8 in 2025.
• The total arrest rate increased 3.6%, from 2,673.8 in 2024 to 2,770.4 in 2025.
• Domestic violence-related calls for assistance decreased from 163,024 in 2024 to 157,416 in 2025.
• The number of law enforcement officers assaulted in the line of duty increased from 13,547 in 2024 to 14,345 in 2025.

Use of Force Incident Reporting 2025 summarizes incidents that meet the reporting criteria in California Government Code section 12525.2, including use of force resulting in serious bodily injury or death, or the discharge of a firearm by a civilian, peace officer, or both. Some key findings include:

• In 2025, 619 incidents involved use of force resulting in serious bodily injury or death of a civilian or officer, or the discharge of a firearm.
• In 2025, 633 civilians were involved in incidents that involved the discharge of a firearm or use of force resulting in serious bodily injury or death. Of those civilians, 572 were male and 58 were female, and:
• • 50.7% were Hispanic
  • 26.9% were white
  • 17.5% were Black
• In 2025, 1,257 officers were involved in incidents. Of those officers:
• • 81.8% were not injured
  • 17.8% were injured
  • 0.4% died

Juvenile Justice in California 2025 tracks key points in the juvenile justice process, including arrests, referrals to probation departments, petitions filed, and dispositions for juveniles tried in juvenile and adult courts. Some key findings include:

• Juvenile arrests decreased 7.0%, from 32,874 in 2024 to 30,568 in 2025.
• Of the 30,568 juvenile arrests, 46.7% were for felony offenses, 52.1% were for misdemeanor offenses, and 1.2% were for status offenses, which are acts that would not be classified as crimes if committed by adults, such as curfew violations, truancy, running away, and incorrigibility.
• Among juveniles referred to county probation departments, 91.5% were referred by law enforcement agencies.
• Of juvenile cases referred to county probation departments, 35.1% were closed at intake with no further action taken.
• Of the 95 juveniles whose cases were processed in adult court, 46.3% resulted in a conviction.

Crime Guns, Inspections, and Handguns in California 2025 examines recovered firearms that were illegally possessed, used in a crime, or suspected of being used in a crime - also known as "crime guns" - including information about the sources and origins of those firearms. The report also includes firearm dealer and ammunition vendor inspection data, information about the Bureau of Firearms' correction process, and details about the Roster of Certified Handguns, which lists handguns approved for retail sale in California because they meet specified testing and safety requirements. Some key findings include:

• In 2025, law enforcement agencies in California recovered and entered 46,288 unique crime guns with identifiable serial numbers into the Automated Firearm System (AFS).
• Of the crime guns entered in 2025, 8,877 were unserialized, including 6,940 identified as unserialized ghost guns.
• The number of ghost guns recovered as crime guns peaked at 10,969 in 2021 and has decreased every year since, declining by over one-third between 2021 and 2025.
• In 2025, 13,613 recovered crime guns were traceable to 1,213 distinct California firearm dealers.
• During 2025, DOJ completed 316 inspections of firearm dealers and ammunition vendors, including 221 firearm dealer inspections and 95 ammunition vendor inspections.
• In 2025, 117 handguns were added to the Handgun Roster, 27 were removed, and 6 were denied for listing. As of December 31, 2025, there were 1,020 handguns on the Roster.

All of the reports are available here. The underlying data associated with the annual reports is available on OpenJustice here.