State Overview
Illinois has one of the most distinctive homicide landscapes in America, dominated entirely by Chicago's outsized violence problem. While Chicago accounts for the vast majority of the state's homicides, downstate Illinois has seen its own challenges — including a spike in rural violence tied to the opioid and methamphetamine trade. Chicago's homicide rate peaked in 2016 and has since fluctuated, but remains among the highest of any large city in the country. The city's South and West side neighborhoods — places like Englewood, Austin, and West Garfield Park — have homicide rates that would rank as among the worst in the world on a per-capita basis. Chicago's serial killer legacy is dominated by John Wayne Gacy Jr., who buried 33 victims in the crawlspace of his suburban Des Plaines home. FBI UCR data powers The Murder Channel's Illinois coverage.