Fewer Americans see crime as a serious problem: Poll
Just less than half of Americans say crime is a very or extremely serious problem, a decline from last year, according to a Gallup poll.
The poll, released Tuesday, found that 32 percent of respondents said they think crime is a “very” serious issue in the U.S., a decrease of 15 points from last year. Meanwhile, 17 percent of respondents said they think crime is an “extremely” serious issue, 7 points lower than 2024.
The share of respondents who thought crime was a very or extremely serious problem peaked in 2023, when 63 percent of those polled said they held that view. The share has hit 60 percent on three other occasions: 2000, 2010 and 2016.
This year’s survey marks the lowest share of respondents who said they think crime is a very serious issue since 2018, when 48 percent of those polled said so. The all-time low came in 2004, when 42 percent of respondents to the survey said crime was a very or serious issue.
In the recent poll, 38 percent of respondents said crime is a “moderately” serious problem, while 8 percent said it is not too serious and 2 percent said it is not at all serious.
According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, an estimated 359.1 violent crimes per 100,000 people in the country took place last year, a decrease of 5.4 percent relative to 2023 and 8.5 percent relative to 2020.
Relative to 2023, the estimated murder, robbery and property crime rates decreased by 15.8 percent, 9.7 percent and 9 percent, respectively. The estimated number of rape crimes decreased by 5.2 percent from 2023 to 2024.
The poll comes as President Trump continues his crackdown on crime via the deployment of National Guard troops to cities across the country, including Washington, D.C., and Memphis, Tenn. The Trump administration is also in legal battles over deployments to cities such as Chicago and Portland, Ore.
The survey, conducted over the phone Oct. 1-16, polled 1,000 U.S. adults in all 50 states and the nation’s capital. It has a margin of error of 4 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.