Highlights
Fear of crime declines but impacts half of Americans.
Concern over crime shifts to personal data.
78 percent of Americans worry about crime a great deal or a fair amount, the same as health care, the number one issue.
Author
Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.
Retired federal senior spokesperson. Thirty-five years of award-winning public relations for national and state criminal justice agencies. Interviewed multiple times by every national news outlet. Former Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention for the Department of Justice’s clearinghouse. Former Director of Information Services, National Crime Prevention Council. Former Adjunct Associate Professor of criminology and public affairs-University of Maryland, University College. Former advisor to presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. Former advisor to the “McGruff-Take a Bite Out of Crime” national media campaign. Certificate of Advanced Study-Johns Hopkins University.
Introduction
Crime and fear of crime drive the discussion as to crime policy in the US; it’s important to understand both.
As to crime, it’s down over the course of the last twenty years with recent increases, Crime in America.
As to fear of crime, there are decreases. Regardless, data from a variety of sources indicate that large numbers of Americans continue to express concerns about crime.
Fear of crime seems to be shifting with 71% worrying about the hacking of personal data and 67% expressing concerns about identity theft. Fewer seem concerned about conventional crime like burglary and robbery.
What’s below is from Gallup, shortened for brevity. Gallup is the principle source of information regarding fear of crime thus a variety of reports are offered.
Half of Americans Believe Crime is Very or Extremely Serious
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 from last year’s 59% and the first time the number has been below 50% since 2005.
Gallup asked Americans in 2000, and in every year since 2003, whether “the problem of crime in the United States is extremely serious, very serious, moderately serious, not too serious or not serious at all.” In all but two years (2004 and 2005), at least 50% said the problem was either “very” or “extremely” serious. It has reached 60% four times — 2000, 2010, 2015 and 2016.
A solid majority of Americans (60%) say there is more crime in the U.S. than a year ago, it is an eight-point drop from last year and the lowest percentage to say crime is on the rise since 2004. Twenty-five percent say there is less crime.
A slight change in the views of Americans about crime in their local area has resulted, for the first time since 2001, in a higher percentage saying crime is decreasing (42%) than increasing (39%). Last year 38% said it was decreasing, up from 33% in 2016.
Nine percent say crime is a very serious or extremely serious problem in the area where they live — a small drop from last year’s 12%, but the first time it has dipped into single digits since 2004.
Cybercrimes Remain Most Worrisome to Americans
The frequency with which Americans worry about becoming the victim of a variety of different crimes is similar to last year, as they remain much more likely to fear being victimized by cybercrimes than traditional crimes. Of the 13 crimes measured, only two garner majority-level concern from Americans — 71% say they frequently or occasionally fear that computer hackers will access their personal, credit card or financial information and 67% worry this often about identity theft. Forty percent are concerned about burglary.
Among those lower-income and less-educated parents, fears for their children’s physical safety may be less related to the isolated instances of mass shootings than to everyday bullying and assaults. As policymakers wrestle with the problems of how to protect all schools from deadly attacks, their priorities should also include the daily safety of students in predominantly low-income schools, whose parents may not have the financial and political resources needed to mount an effective campaign for their children’s physical well-being at school.
Low-income parents in the United States are more than twice as likely (32%) as high-income parents (14%) to worry frequently that their children will be physically harmed at school.
Previous Fear of Crime Data
78 percent of Americans worry about crime and violence a great deal or a fair amount, the same as health care, the number one issue-Gallup-2018.
56 percent of Americans believe that crime needs to be reduced-Pew.
68 percent of Americans believe that crime is increasing-Gallup.
Two-thirds of gun owners say protection from crime is a major reason they own a gun-Pew, Crime in America.
Conclusions
When looking at national data, it’s rare for any issue to rise above 50 percent, thus when you say that 50 percent of Americans are extremely concerned about crime, or 78 percent of Americans worry about crime a great deal or a fair amount, the same as health care, the number one issue, crime is clearly a national priority.
Yes, crime is down considerably over the course of the last twenty years and yes, fear of conventional crime is down.
But crime in America continues to be a major concern for the great majority of citizens.
Contacts
Contact us at leonardsipes@gmail.com.
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