The United States is on course this year to see one of its lowest crime rates in decades, according to new research published Wednesday.

A study published by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law surveyed data from the 30 largest cities in the country to determine that the U.S. is on track in 2017 for the second-lowest crime rate since 1990, above only 2013. Using historical trends, the authors predict that the 2017 overall crime rate will be just under 4,000 crimes per 100,000 people.

The drop is credited largely to significant reductions in several of America's largest cities, including a 25.6 percent decrease in Detroit, a 20.5 percent drop in Houston and a 19.1 percent drop in New York.

Another key finding of the study was that Chicago's murder rate, which is the highest in the country, is projected to drop this year by 2.4 percent. In 2016, 762 people were murdered in the city, compared to 472 that have been reported so far in 2017.

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President Trump frequently criticized Chicago for its murder rate during the campaign, proclaiming himself a "law and order" candidate who would lower crime rates through his support for tough police measures.

Violent crime is seeing a slight drop of 0.6 percent in 2017, driven mainly by reductions in violent crime in Washington, D.C., and Chicago.

Some cities, however, are still experiencing sharp localized increases in crime, most notably in Charlotte, N.C. Charlotte has seen 63 murders so far in 2017, on course to beat last year's final total of 67.

Charlotte police have been responding to their city's sharp rise in murders this year with an aggressive campaign to remove illegal guns from city streets. In March, Charlotte's police chief told reporters that his office was focusing on repeat offenders.

"We’re in the hot spots. We’re seizing guns, taking illegal guns off the street, we’re focusing on those repeat offenders. We’re also looking at suspects who are escalating their violence. If I go from pointing a gun at you to shooting at a house to shooting at a car, it’s not illogical that you might shoot a person," Chief Kerr Putney said at the time.