(NewsNation) —Homicides have dropped lower than pre-pandemic levels when the nation saw a surge in violent crime, a new analysis shows.  

A report released Thursday by the Council on Criminal Justice which examined nearly 30 cities showed homicides dropped 13% representing 319 fewer homicides in these cities this year.

The decline in homicides and violent crime began in 2023 with more than two-thirds of the cities examined reporting a drop during the first half of this year. 

“Especially with homicide, the continuing downward trends we’re seeing so far this year are heartening, as every killing prevented is a life saved,” Ernesto Lopez, the group’s senior research specialist who co-author of the report, said in a statement. 

“But crime is heavily influenced by local factors, and despite the national trends, many U.S. cities continue to face intolerably high levels of violence.”

The study showed that of the cities examined, nine experienced increases, including St. Louis and Buffalo.

Homicide levels in the summer of 2020 far exceeded previous peaks amid pandemic lockdowns and widespread protests against police violence after George Floyd’s murder in May by Minneapolis police, the report stated. 

By the end of 2020, homicides in the United States had climbed 30%, a historic single-year increase. That upward trend continued in 2021, as murders rose another 7% across the entire city sample. 

But homicide levels dropped from 2021 to 2022 and the rate fell further from 2022 to 2023. 

While it remained 8% higher at the end of 2023 than the rate in 2019, this year’s levels mark an optimistic trend, the authors noted. 

It’s unclear what affected the rise and subsequent fall of homicide rates, but several theories have been posed, the report stated. 

These include “pandemic-related changes in people’s daily activities and emotional and economic stress levels, changes in police practices and a rupture of public trust in law enforcement, and the suspension or reduction of social supports and programs.”