Experts warn that April 2025 cuts of more than $800 million in DOJ grants could jeopardize recent reductions in U.S. homicides. Community-based intervention programs—supported by the 2022 Safer Communities Act—are credited with local successes in Baltimore and San Francisco. Critics say the cuts were made without a systematic review for waste or fraud, even though some isolated cases of alleged misuse have surfaced.
Experts Warn $800M DOJ Cuts Could Undermine Recent Drops in U.S. Homicides
The justice department justified the cuts by stating that it was instead focusing on ‘prosecuting criminals’, but some experts argue that intervention programs are more effective at reducing violence.Photograph: Victor J Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images(Photograph: Victor J Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Homicides in the United States fell sharply after a pandemic-era spike, but experts and local advocates warn that recent federal cuts to community violence intervention funding could reverse those gains.
In April 2025 the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs eliminated more than $800 million in grants that had supported efforts to prevent and respond to gun violence and other community harms. The Justice Department framed the change as a shift toward "prosecuting criminals," but many researchers say evidence shows community-based intervention programs can reduce violence more effectively than arrests alone.
Why Violence Rose — And Then Fell
The U.S. experienced a large rise in homicides at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic: FBI figures show roughly a 30% increase in the murder rate in 2020 compared with 2019, the largest single-year jump on record. Researchers attribute that surge in part to pandemic-related disruptions that pushed many young men and teen boys in high-poverty neighborhoods out of work and out of school.
Violent crime began easing in the latter half of the Biden administration and continued to decline after the 2024 election. A 2025 report from the Council on Criminal Justice found homicides were about 25% lower than in 2019, and the New York Police Department reported its fewest murders on record during the first four months of 2025.
What Funding Cut and Who It Hurt
The 2022 bipartisan Safer Communities Act allocated $250 million for community-based violence intervention and prevention. Grants from that initiative supported organizations such as Baltimore’s LifeBridge Health and Los Angeles’ Urban Peace Institute, which used community mediators and trained violence interrupters to reduce shootings.
Despite evidence of local successes, the April 2025 cuts removed funding for groups including Urban Peace, LifeBridge and at least two other Baltimore organizations, according to the advocacy group Giffords. Baltimore—one of the cities with the biggest homicide-rate declines in the Council on Criminal Justice study—had relied in part on those community-based strategies.
Debate Over Causes And Accountability
Supporters of the cuts said they were eliminating "wasteful grants." Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi argued the move would curb misspending. Critics counter that there was no systematic review of waste, fraud or abuse before funds were revoked.
"We saw historic reductions in homicides, which means that countless fewer families had to bury loved ones," said Shani Buggs, an assistant professor at UC Davis who researches community violence prevention. "It is beyond disheartening that rather than investing and studying what worked and pouring into what worked, we are doing the opposite."
Analysts caution that the nationwide decline in violence likely reflects multiple factors — including intervention programs, public infrastructure improvements such as street lighting, and the waning strain of Covid — and that no single cause has been definitively identified.
Instances Of Alleged Misuse
Some high-profile abuses have been alleged. In Minneapolis, a 2023 lawsuit challenged the city’s contracting procedures for violence-prevention programs; the city settled and agreed to tighten application requirements. Separately, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed suit in 2025 alleging directors of the nonprofit We Push for Peace siphoned more than $6.5 million for personal expenses. The nonprofit’s leaders have disputed those claims.
Officials and experts say such incidents underscore the need for stronger oversight — not necessarily for wholesale defunding of interventions that have produced measurable local results.
Local Success Stories
Researchers point to multiple program-level successes. In San Francisco, a focused 2020 violence-reduction initiative that offered intensive mentorship and life coaching to people identified as high risk produced a roughly 50% decline in homicides and non-fatal shootings within the target district compared with the rest of the city, according to a University of Pennsylvania report. Baltimore’s decline is also cited as evidence that coordinated, well-funded strategies can work.
Bottom line: Experts warn that cutting proven prevention funding risks undercutting a fragile decline in violent crime. They recommend careful audits and strengthened oversight where problems exist — but many argue that proven community-led interventions deserve continued or expanded support rather than abrupt termination.
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