Arrests for low-level crimes, including vagrancy and drug possession, rose in the U.S.from 2024 to 2025 even as rates of violent crime including homicide plummeted to historic national lows, according to a new analysis of federal data from the criminal justice and immigration reforms advocacy group FWD.us.Zoë Towns, the executive director of FWD.us, spoke to NPR ahead of the report's release on Wednesday."This increase signals a really troubling return to some of the extreme law and order policies that defined the American criminal justice system during the 80s and the 90s," Towns said, referring to the era's tough-on-crime policies, including mandatory minimum prison sentences, that led to a massive rise in incarceration in the U.S.
for decades.The report analyzes publicly available FBI and immigration arrest data and does not include details of whether charges were dropped or if people served any time in jail or prison.Still, Towns said, "An arrest has life-changing consequences for the person involved and for their family.It can mean days or months in jail.
It can mean a lost job.It can mean missed rent or a missed mortgage payment," and can mean families separated, she said.A representative for the FBI didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on this analysis.Four states, California, Hawaii, Nevada and Arizona, accounted for over half the increase in vagrancy arrests, according to the report.
The legal definition of vagrancy is "roaming from place to place without a permanent job, home, or material resources." In practice, it is disproportionately enforced against people experiencing homelessness.FWD.us found arrests for vagrancy were up 44% (22,769 in 2024 to 32,728 in 2025).Two demographic groups made up the majority of arrests: Asian Americans, as well as Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders.Although AANHPI people make up only about 7% of the US population, they accounted for 17% of the increase in vagrancy arrests, largely in Hawaii, a...