Seven in 10 Americans say there is more crime in the U.S. now than there was a year ago – up slightly from the 63 percent who said so in 2014. Eighteen percent say there is less crime, and 8 percent say the level of crime has stayed the same.
The results are based on Gallup’s annual crime poll, conducted in October.
“Government statistics show serious crime decreased nearly every year from 1994 through 2010,” the report noted.
Since Gallup began in 1989 asking Americans about their perceptions of crime, majorities have said crime worsened compared to the previous year – with more than 80 percent holding this view in the ‘80s and early ‘90s.
Crime fell over the course of the next decade, reaching a record low of 41 percent in 2001. By 2002, this figure was back to a majority, and ranged from 53 percent to 74 percent in the decade that followed.
The overall violent crime rate for rape, sexual and aggravated assault, robbery and simple assault fell from 80 victimizations per 1,000 persons in 1994 to 19 per 1,000 in 2010, according to U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
While 87 percent of Americans in 1993 said crime was up, this figure dropped to 41 percent in 2001. But the percentage perceiving more crime shot up again to 62 percent in 2002 – around the time of the Washington, D.C., sniper shootings – and has remained fairly high ever since, despite actual crime rates falling in most years.
Perceptions of greater crime are much lower in the West (64 percent) than in the East (69 percent) and the South (71 percent), while Midwesterners (76 percent) are likely to say crime has increased. Those who live in rural areas (75 percent) are more inclined to say crime is up than those in suburban areas (69 percent) or cities (68 percent).
Since Barack Obama took office in 2009, conservatives (80 percent this year) and Republicans (79 percent) have been the most likely to perceive current crime in the U.S. as higher than in the year prior, compared with liberals (57 percent) and Democrats (65 percent) who have been much less likely to say crime is up since Obama was elected. This pattern was reversed when George W. Bush was in office.
Nearly six in 10 Americans say U.S. crime is an “extremely” or “very” serious problem – up slightly from 55 percent in 2014 and just 1 percentage point below the high for this measure in surveys conducted from 2000 to 2010. About one in three say the problem is “moderately” serious, while 5 percent say it’s “not serious at all.”
Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted in October with a random sample of 1,015 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 states and DC.
