Crime Reduction A National Priority—New Data

A collective consensus is that fear, crime and violence are national concerns and priorities. Fifty-one percent say that the issue of crime in the U.S. is “extremely” or “very” serious. And from a variety of sources, violent crime is up dramatically.

Like climate deniers, there are criminologists and major publications proclaiming that the increase in violence and fear are overblown. If we are ever to make inroads as to poverty, economic development, schools, and overall community safety, violence desperately needs to be addressed. Denying the problem seems cruel.

The new Pew Research Center released data via a national survey as to the major problems facing the country:

• 47 percent of those surveyed believe that crime needs to be reduced. A related term, defending against terrorism, came in at 63 percent. Addressing the criminal justice system is at 46 percent. Dealing with drug addiction was at the bottom of priorities at 28 percent.
• Reducing crime was supported by 55 percent of those leaning Republican and 39 percent of those leaning Democrat.
• Reducing crime was supported by 43 percent of Whites, 55 percent of Hispanics, and 61 percent of Blacks.
• Reducing crime was supported by 45 percent of men and 50 percent of women.
• Support for reducing crime dramatically increased as interviewees got older.
• Support for decreasing crime was the highest among the less educated, a difference of 26 percentage points between those with advanced degrees and those with a high school education (or less).

Pew

Context-Increasing Crime

Violent crime increased 28 percent since 2015. Serious violent crime also increased. Homicides and gun crimes are increasing substantially, Homicides And Gun Crime.

Context-Fear Of Crime Data (rearranged quotes)

Americans are more likely to perceive crime in the U.S. as having increased over the prior year (78%) than they have been at any point since 1993. Meanwhile, they are less likely to perceive more crime in their local area (38%) than at any point in Gallup’s trend since 2004.

The gap between Americans’ perceptions of more crime in their local area versus nationally is 40 percentage points — the highest Gallup has recorded in three decades of tracking both trends.

The percentage saying there is more crime in the U.S. than there was a year ago is up 14 points from last year’s 64%, marking a year-over-year increase not found in Gallup’s trend on this measure since 2005.

Americans’ perceptions of increased crime in their local area is down slightly from the previous year. This measure has been on a general decline over the past decade. As in recent years, Americans are about as likely to say there is more crime in their area than there was a year ago (38%) as they are to say there is less crime (39%) — though historically, Americans have been more likely to say crime has increased in their area than to say it’s decreased.

These data are from Gallup’s annual Crime poll, conducted Sept. 30-Oct. 15, 2020.

Though Americans perceive greater levels of national crime, they do not see the crime problem as being any more serious than they have in the recent past.

Fifty-one percent say that the issue of crime in the U.S. is “extremely” or “very” serious — consistent with the 48% and 52% recorded in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The 10% saying that local crime is extremely or very serious is also within the range of those same years.

Source: Gallup

The Hill (another perspective of Gallup’s data-rearranged quotes)

Nearly 80 percent of Americans say that crime has increased over the past year, according to a Gallup poll released Friday.

The poll found that the increase in perceptions of crime was largely driven by Republican respondents, 83 percent of whom say crime has increased.

Meanwhile, 73 percent of Democrats polled said that crime had increased.

Gallup pointed to Republicans highlighting looting and violence erupting at some racial justice protests earlier this year following the police killing of George Floyd as a possible reason for the increase.

Meanwhile, only 38 percent of Americans said there is less crime in their local area than there was a year ago. In addition, 29 percent of respondents said they would be afraid to walk within their local area alone at night.

Source: The Hill

Previous Data On Fear Of Crime

After the riots and protests of 2020, a majority of Americans say they are concerned about rising crime in U.S. cities, according to a new Harvard CAPS/Harris poll released exclusively to The Hill. Seventy-seven percent of respondents say they are concerned that crime is rising in the nation’s cities, while 46 percent of respondents said they were concerned about rising crime in their own communities, The Hill.

Mass Shootings: In the wake of two August mass shootings that claimed the lives of 31 people in one weekend, Americans are more worried about themselves or a family member being the victim of a mass shooting than they were after two previous massacres. Currently, 48% of U.S. adults are “very” or “somewhat” worried, compared with 39% in 2017 after one gunman killed 58 people in Las Vegas and 38% in 2015 after a San Bernardino shooter left 14 dead, Gallup.

Worry About Crime: 75 percent of Americans worry about crime and violence (April 2019), Gallup.

Fear of crime was the top national concern in 2018. Per Gallup, 75 percent of Americans worry about crime and violence (down from 78 percent in March 2018), which was the same as health care, the top concern, Fear of Crime. Gallup asked those polled if they worried about topics a great deal or a fair amount. Crime was ranked the same as health care using a combined score.

Half of Americans believe crime is very or extremely serious. In 2018, just under half (49%) of Americans believe the problem of crime in the United States is very or extremely serious — a 10-percentage-point drop and the first time the number has been below 50% since 2005, Serious Crime Concerns.

Source: Fear Of Crime

Conclusions

A collective consensus is that fear, crime and violence are national concerns and priorities.

Handgun sales are going through the roof. People and businesses are leaving cities due to COVID and crime. Police officers are leaving the profession at the insistence of family members. Police recruitment is down by 63 percent. Fear is high.

From a variety of sources, violent crime is up dramatically, Homicides Exploding.

Like climate deniers, there are criminologists and major publications proclaiming that the increase in violence and fear are overblown.

If we are ever to make inroads as to poverty, economic development, schools, and overall community safety, violence desperately needs to be addressed. Denying the problem seems cruel.

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