WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new Gallup poll reported by The Washington Post reveals a sharp partisan divide as fewer Americans view crime as a serious issue, continuing a steady decline over the past two years.
The Washington Post notes that about 49 percent of adults said they viewed crime as an “extremely” or “very” serious problem in the United States, with more Republicans than Democrats (69 percent versus 37 percent) labeling it that way.
According to the Post, Americans who consider crime to be “very serious” or “extremely serious” have declined for a second year in a row, with results dropping from 63 percent in 2023 to 56 percent in 2024. “The finding indicates that perception aligns somewhat with reality, as violent crime has also dropped nationwide in recent years,” reporter Anita Gupta wrote.
Lydia Saad, director of U.S. social research at Gallup, said, “Both parties today have their own reasons for believing crime is down.”
The poll surveyed a random sample of 1,000 individuals from all 50 states and D.C. between Oct. 1 and Oct. 16.
Saad noted that Democratic respondents might attribute the decrease in crime concerns to the Biden administration, while Republicans could apply similar reasoning to the Trump administration.
The poll also found that income and location play a role in shaping crime concerns. “Fifty-nine percent of those making less than $40,000 a year described crime in the U.S. as an extremely or very serious problem, while 44 percent of those making $100,000 or more a year said the same,” the Post reported. Likewise, residents of small towns or rural areas were more likely to perceive crime as an extremely or very serious issue compared to those living in suburbs or cities.
Lower-income individuals were nearly twice as likely to identify an area within a mile of their home where they could not walk alone at night. The Post added that women and residents of the western regions of the U.S. particularly shared this concern.
According to the poll, gender perception differences on crime have narrowed. “While 72 percent of women and 55 percent of men saw crime as an extremely or very serious issue in 2023, this year’s survey found only a 10-point difference in how the two genders viewed the issue,” the Post reported.
Fewer respondents expressed concern about being mugged, murdered, or sexually assaulted. However, “respondents who were concerned this year about becoming victims of hate crimes or seeing children physically harmed at school have remained relatively steady in the past several years,” the Post stated.
Roughly 69 percent of respondents said they are concerned about becoming victims of identity theft.
Americans largely view crime as a national issue rather than a local one. Forty-nine percent of respondents said they consider the broader issue of crime in the United States to be very or extremely serious, while only 12 percent rated crime in their local area as severe.
Saad emphasized that the media plays a major role in shaping how individuals perceive crime nationwide. People rely on their neighborhoods and communities for direct experience, she said, but turn to “secondary reports, such as social media and traditional news outlets, to judge the state of crime everywhere else.”
“We get a lot more national news than we do local news these days. … The volume of stories that could be reported about crime nationally probably exaggerates in people’s mind how many crimes are going on per capita,” Saad said.
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Could it be because we have less progressive DAs, and some cities are actually criminalizing crime again? I still stay the F away from Oakland since after the pandemic, but SF is much cleaned up in the last year or so. Glad Trump & Lurie worked that out, though Oakland is certainly our local Memphis, but Trump being Trump he seems to only want to target high-name-recognition cities/universities with his tactics/antics.
“Could it be because we have less progressive DAs, and some cities are actually criminalizing crime again?”
Unlikely. We have comparative data – crime went up across the board during the pandemic and went down across the board afterwards.
Like real estate, general numbers mean nothing. What the cost of a house is nationally tells you nothing about what you’ll pay for a house in Davis (much less than a couple of years ago, btw). Same with crime being down “across the board”. Meaningless to crime in Davis, or SF, or Oakland.