Queens Crime Rate

Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group – managed by Todd Spodek, a second-generation law firm with over 40 years of combined experience defending clients across Queens and New York City. Queens presents a statistically complicated picture in 2025. Overall, Queens maintains one of the lower murder rates among NYC boroughs – **21 murders per million people in 2024**, down from 27 in 2019. The risk of being murdered in the Bronx is four times higher than in Queens. Early 2025 data shows a 19% decrease in most crime categories borough-wide. But these overall improvements mask troubling neighborhood-specific increases: South Queens felony assaults surged 26.6% in 2024, shooting victims rose 62.5%, and Queens North shootings spiked 133% in early 2025.

When you’re charged with a crime in Queens, prosecutors cherry-pick whichever statistics support aggressive charging. Arrested in South Queens? They cite the 26.6% felony assault increase. Arrested in Queens North? They reference the 133% shooting spike. Arrested in Forest Hills or Bayside? They argue your conduct threatens safe neighborhoods that “don’t tolerate crime.” Overall borough improvements don’t reduce prosecutorial aggression – they claim credit for declining numbers while maintaining harsh charging practices justified by neighborhood-specific increases. Defense requires exposing this statistical manipulation and forcing prosecutors to prove your guilt, not Queens’ crime trends.

Overall Decline Masks Neighborhood Spikes

Queens’ overall crime rate sits around 20-32 crimes per 1,000 residents, with violent crime at 4 per 1,000 and property crime at 16-17 per 1,000. These numbers place Queens among NYC’s safer boroughs. In 2023, murders fell 11% and shooting incidents dropped 26% in Queens. Through 2024, Queens remained “statistically level” in total major crimes, with overall borough-wide improvements. But aggregate data conceals dramatic neighborhood variation:

• **South Queens felony assaults:** Up 26.6% in 2024, with over 500 incidents reported.
• **South Queens shooting victims:** Increased 62.5% compared to 2024.
• **Queens North shootings:** Spiked 133% in early 2025 – from 3 shootings in the same period in 2024 to 7 in 2025.
• **North Queens felony assaults:** 521 incidents through March 2024, reflecting a 9.4% increase year-over-year.

Prosecutors weaponize these neighborhood spikes. If you’re charged with assault in South Queens, they cite the 26.6% increase as evidence that your conduct contributes to a dangerous trend requiring maximum sentences. If you’re charged with a shooting-related offense in Queens North, they invoke the 133% spike to argue you’re part of an escalating violence problem. The fact that Queens overall experienced crime declines doesn’t matter – prosecutors focus on micro-level increases affecting the specific area where you were arrested.

At Spodek Law Group – we challenge prosecutorial narratives that substitute neighborhood crime trends for evidence of your individual guilt. Crime statistics measure thousands of incidents. Your case involves one. Prosecutors must prove you committed the specific offense charged, not that your neighborhood experienced crime increases during the relevant period.

2025 Shooting Data Contradicts Citywide Narrative

Citywide, New York experienced record-low shootings and murders in early 2025. NYPD announced historic reductions across most boroughs. But Queens tells a different story – **shooting victims rose borough-wide by 21% in early 2025**, even though shooting incidents fell 12.5%. This paradox occurs when fewer shooting incidents produce more casualties (multiple victims per incident), suggesting more brazen or reckless shootings.

Geographic breakdown reveals even starker disparities. Queens North shootings surged 133% in early 2025. This contradicts citywide messaging about declining gun violence. When prosecutors charge firearms offenses, assault with a weapon, or attempted murder in Queens North, they reference the local 133% spike – not citywide improvements. When they charge similar offenses elsewhere in Queens, they shift to borough-wide or citywide statistics depending on which narrative supports harsher treatment.

Defense requires forcing prosecutors to justify which statistics they’re citing and why. If they invoke neighborhood-specific increases, demand proof that those increases are statistically significant rather than small-sample anomalies. If they cite borough-wide trends, demand acknowledgment of citywide improvements showing overall violence declining. Prosecutors can’t have it both ways – claiming credit for citywide safety while arguing your neighborhood remains dangerous when it suits charging decisions.

Geographic Disparities Prosecutors Exploit

Crime risk in Queens varies dramatically by neighborhood. **Northwest Queens:** Crime risk as high as 1 in 20. **East Queens:** Crime risk as low as 1 in 72. This creates a four-fold difference in victimization rates within the same borough. Prosecutors use these disparities to justify differential treatment based on arrest location.

Consider identical conduct – simple assault during a bar fight – charged in two different Queens neighborhoods:

• **Northwest Queens (high-crime area):** Prosecutors file felony assault charges, oppose bail, cite the 1-in-20 crime risk to argue the community needs deterrence and protection from defendants like you.
• **East Queens (low-crime area):** Prosecutors might charge the same conduct as misdemeanor assault or offer diversion programs, but they’ll argue your conduct is particularly threatening because “this neighborhood doesn’t tolerate violence” – residents expect safety, your behavior disrupts that expectation.

Either way, geography works against you. High-crime neighborhoods justify aggressive prosecution because the community needs deterrence. Low-crime neighborhoods justify it because residents demand harsh responses to maintain safety. Prosecutors frame your conduct as unacceptable regardless of local crime rates, using whichever narrative supports maximum charges.

Statistical Cherry-Picking Serves Prosecution

Queens crime data offers prosecutors multiple narratives depending on which timeframe and geographic scope they select:

• **Compare 2025 to 2024:** Overall crime down 19% – prosecutors claim aggressive enforcement worked, justify maintaining harsh charging.
• **Compare specific neighborhoods to borough average:** South Queens felony assaults up 26.6% while overall borough remained level – prosecutors cite neighborhood increases when charging South Queens defendants.
• **Compare 2024 murders to 2023:** Murders up 6% (53 vs 50) – prosecutors argue violence is rising despite overall crime declines.
• **Compare Queens to other boroughs:** Queens has lower murder rate than Bronx – prosecutors use this to argue Queens defendants should receive harsher sentences to maintain the borough’s relative safety.

When prosecutors present crime statistics during bail hearings, plea negotiations, or sentencing, assume they’re selecting data to maximize your apparent threat. Your attorney must expose these manipulations – demand current year-to-date statistics, compare to multi-year trends, show neighborhood improvements where applicable, challenge claims that your conduct threatens community safety when Queens overall is experiencing historic crime reductions.

Todd Spodek’s defense of Anna Delvey showed what vigorous advocacy looks like when prosecutors construct narratives based on selective evidence and media attention. They wanted to make her emblematic of fraud. Spodek forced them to prove each specific charge. Queens crime prosecutions work similarly – prosecutors weaponize statistics selectively, defense must deconstruct systematically.

Property Crime Dominates but Violent Crime Prosecuted Politically

Property crime constitutes the vast majority of offenses in Queens – grand larceny, auto theft, burglary. Property crime rates sit around 16-17 per 1,000 residents. Yet prosecutorial resources and political attention concentrate on violent crime because declining shootings and murders generate positive headlines for elected officials. When you’re charged with property offenses in Queens, prosecutors have less political pressure to seek maximum sentences compared to violent crimes – but they still overcharge strategically.

Grand larceny prosecutions inflate property values to reach higher-degree charges. Auto theft cases charge defendants as part of organized rings even when they acted alone. Burglary prosecutions infer intent to commit crimes inside from mere unlawful entry. Your defense requires challenging these prosecutorial strategies even though property crimes receive less media attention. A Class B felony grand larceny conviction carries up to 25 years – property prosecutions remain serious despite political focus on violent crime.

Queens’ crime rate reflects overall improvements with troubling neighborhood-specific increases. Prosecutors will continue citing whichever statistics support aggressive charging regardless of broader trends. Your defense requires attorneys who understand that crime rates measure thousands of incidents across diverse neighborhoods – not your individual guilt or threat level. We’re available 24/7. Call us.