Annual arrests in the United States since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic have dropped by 25%, according to a new analysis released Thursday by the Council on Criminal Justice.   

"Adult arrests have not come back up from that 2020 plummet," said the report's lead author, Stephanie Kennedy, Ph.D., policy director at the CCJ. Kennedy analyzed FBI data from 1980 through 2024. Arrest data for 2025 most likely won't be released until next Fall, Kennedy told CBS News. 

In 2019, roughly 10 million people were arrested, according to FBI data. That number dropped to about 7.5 million people in 2024.

Male arrests decline, while the share of female arrests increases

Although men make up a majority of arrests, the share of female arrests has increased, with girls making up 31% of all juvenile arrests in 2024 and women making up about 27% of adult arrests the same year, the analysis found.

Kennedy cautioned that the data shouldn't be interpreted as female arrests rising out of control, but as a sign of the male arrest rates dropping rapidly. In fact, she said, the data shows that the female adult arrest rate peaked in 2009 and has dropped steadily since. By 2024, it was about 42% lower than the 2009 peak.

By contrast, the peak for men's arrests was in 1989; in 2024, it was about 66% lower, according to the analysis. Women and men tend to enter the justice system through different pathways, according to researchers who have examined the criminal justice system. 

"Men are more likely to be arrested for violent crime, while women's system contact is more often tied to trauma, relationships and survival-related behavior," Kennedy said.

However, the number of incarcerated women has increased by more than 600% in the past several decades, rising from a total of 26,326 in 1980 to 186,244 in 2023, according to the nonprofit The Sentencing Project.   

Since 2020, women's incarceration has climbed faster than men's, with jail rates up 33% for women versus 17% for men, and prison rates for women up 9%, according to the CCJ. In 2023, more than 1 million women were under the supervision of the criminal legal system.

Juvenile and drug offense arrests drop

Juvenile carjackings and motor vehicle thefts have grabbed headlines in recent years, but juvenile arrest numbers remain lower than in 2019, according to the Council on Criminal Justice analysis. 

"I was particularly surprised by the low rates of juvenile arrests since 2019, though the trend began in about 2008," Kennedy said. Juvenile arrests accounted for about 19% of all arrests in 1980, and 7% in 2024.

But the report also noted that different juvenile groups had various outcomes. "Violent and property arrest rates for boys and girls rose, drug arrests declined for boys but increased for girls, and post-2020 increases were especially pronounced among Black and Asian youth," according to the report.

Arrests for drug offenses overall fell dramatically in recent years, as well, the report found.

"The national drug offense rate cratered," Kennedy said. "It's half of what it was in 2019 for both adults and juveniles." The drug offense arrest rate in 2024 was 591 per 100,000 adults, dropping 50% from its 2019 level, the analysis found. At its peak in 2006, there were 1,537 arrests per 100,000 adults.

Kennedy attributed some of that to states passing laws that reduce penalties for many drug offenses. In many cases, sentencing law has caught up with the reality on the ground, she said.

"When talking to law enforcement, they say they'll arrest if they feel like they need to," Kennedy said.

Some law enforcement officials agree that making low-level drug arrests can be time-consuming and ultimately not effective.

"The ultimate reason why law enforcement is not prioritizing low-level drug arrests is because of the judicial frustrations they are dealing with," said Rodney Harrison, former Suffolk County police commissioner and a CBS News law enforcement analyst.

"The risks don't outweigh the means. If a law enforcement official makes an arrest for a misdemeanor charge, more than likely than not that person will be released before the end of that officer's tour," Harrison said.