Gallup Reporter Resources: Crime

Oct. 26, 2022

This is Gallup Reporter Resources, a comprehensive compilation of all Gallup findings on the issue of the day, edited by Justin McCarthy.

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An FBI report released earlier this month found that crime in the U.S. decreased slightly in 2021. But in 2022, the issue is a central one for midterm election campaigns across the country -- and a midyear survey of police executives in the largest U.S. cities finds that robberies have spiked, as well as an increase in aggravated assaults.

News reporting like yours is critical to the public's understanding of the issue of crime.

Gallup is here to help -- we have a variety of resources available to enrich your coverage through historical findings in the U.S., including upcoming updates to key metrics, as well as global insights on law and order abroad.

What have we learned about crime this year?

Worries about crime in the U.S. are elevated in 2022.

Americans' concern about crime and violence in the U.S. edged up in 2022, and -- for the first time since 2016 -- a majority (53%) say they worry a "great deal" about crime. Another 27% report they worry a "fair amount," placing the issue near the top of the list of national concerns.

Women have been consistently more worried than men about crime over the course of the 21-year trend.

Where U.S. adults live in the country also affects the degree of concern they have about crime. City residents (58%) register a higher level of worry than those residing in suburbs (46%) and rural areas (51%). City dwellers' worry has increased by nine percentage points since 2021, while worry among suburbanites and rural residents is essentially flat.

Satisfaction with policies to reduce or control crime is at a record low.

In January, Americans offered a gloomy assessment of key aspects of U.S. society, including their satisfaction with policies to reduce or control crime -- which, at 24%, is roughly half of what it was in 2020 and one of the lowest levels of satisfaction recorded in a list of 21 policy areas. It is also a new low in Gallup's trend since 2001.

Satisfaction with efforts to deal with poverty and homelessness (21%) is also among the lowest-rated policy areas.

Confidence in the police has fallen below the majority level for the second time in Gallup's trend since 1993.

Confidence in the police, at 45%, has fallen below the majority level for only the second time, with the other instance occurring in 2020 in the weeks after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. Still, Americans express more confidence in the police than most other institutions Gallup asks about.

Confidence in the police is one of the institutions Republicans and Democrats differ most on -- and one of the few institutions Republicans express greater confidence in than Democrats.

This year's poll marks new lows in confidence in the police and in the criminal justice system (14%) in their respective trends since 1993.

Last year, White and Black Americans differed in their confidence in a number of U.S. institutions, but their ratings of the police showed the largest contrast. Neither group had strong confidence in the criminal justice system.

What else do we know about perceptions of, worries about and experiences with crime?

In 2021, nearly one in four Americans said they or another household member were a victim of a crime.

About one in four U.S. adults (23%) in 2021 said that they or a member of their household had been the victim of a crime in the past 12 months, including 14% who said that they, personally, were victimized by a crime.

Americans were most likely to have experienced theft, with 14% saying money or property was stolen from them or another household member in the past year. Vandalism, at 12%, was also one of the more common crimes. Americans were least likely to say a member of their household had been the victim of any of the three violent crimes asked about in the survey, which included physical assault (3%), sexual assault (2%) and aggravated robbery (2%).

Americans who said they live in a "big" or a "small" city were more likely in 2021 than in the previous two years to indicate their household was victimized by crime.

Americans worry much more about identity theft and financial hacking than they do about violent crimes.

The percentages of Americans who worry frequently or occasionally about having their personal, credit card or financial information stolen by hackers (74%) or being a victim of identity theft (72%) have consistently outpaced worries about other crimes.

Between 30% and 43% of U.S. adults said in 2021 that they worry at least occasionally about their car being stolen, their home being burglarized while they are not there, their child being harmed at school, getting mugged, or being a victim of a hate crime or of terrorism. Fear of being assaulted or killed by a coworker while on the job is at the bottom of the list.

Gallup will be updating its measure on worries about various crimes in the coming weeks. Please contact mediainquiry@gallup.com if you would like an embargoed copy of the findings.

More than a third of Americans say there is somewhere near their home where they would be afraid to walk alone at night.

In 2021, 37% of U.S. adults said there is an area near where they live -- "that is, within a mile" -- where they would be afraid to walk alone at night. That was up from 29% in 2020, the all-time low in Gallup's trend dating back to 1965.

Measures to protect oneself from being a victim of a crime have increased since 2007.

Americans have become significantly more likely to say they use methods of protection since 2007. Uses of personal defense weapons -- a gun, mace or a knife -- were all up by 10 to 12 points in 2021. Keeping a dog for protection and installing a burglar alarm each increased by five to six points.

Women were more likely than men to say they avoid going to unsafe neighborhoods, have a dog for protection, and carry mace or pepper spray. However, men were more likely than women to say they bought a gun and to say they carry it or a knife for self-defense.

Additionally, U.S. adults who said they have been a victim of a crime in the past year were significantly more likely than nonvictims to have taken each of the seven precautions.

Nearly a third of the U.S. says drug use has been a cause of family problems.

In 2021, 32% of Americans said that drug use has been a cause of trouble in their family. The latest figure, similar to measures from 2018 and 2019, reflects a sizable increase since the 1990s and early 2000s in the percentage of U.S. families that have experienced struggles with drugs.

The largest increases in reports of family drug issues have been experienced by Americans living in rural areas and those in high-income households.

Americans consistently have been more than twice as likely to describe the drug problem in the U.S. as "extremely" or "very serious" than to describe the drug problem in their local area this way.

Compared with their local area, Americans are much more likely to perceive national crime as a serious problem, and one that is worsening.

Gallup asks Americans to rate the seriousness of the crime problem where they live, as well as in the U.S. These perceptions have been largely stable over time. In 2021, a slight majority said the crime problem nationally was extremely or very serious (54%), versus 14% saying this about the crime problem in their area.

A much higher percentage of adults typically say that crime is worsening in the U.S. than say this about their local area. In 2021, 74% of Americans said there was more crime in the U.S. compared with the prior year, while 51% said crime had increased in their local area. Both figures were at or near their peak levels for the past 25 years.

Gallup will be updating its measure on perceptions of crime in the coming weeks. Please contact mediainquiry@gallup.com if you would like an embargoed copy of the findings.

A majority of Americans favor the death penalty for murder -- but support is lower than it has been since the 1970s.

The 54% of U.S. adults who said in 2021 that they favor the death penalty for convicted murderers was essentially unchanged from readings over the previous four years but remained lower than any other measurement since March 1972 (50%).

A different death penalty question Gallup has asked occasionally, though not in the latest poll, found lower support for the death penalty when life imprisonment with no possibility of parole was offered as an explicit alternative.

Gallup first asked about the death penalty in 1936, and majorities have consistently favored it, apart from a few readings between 1957 and 1971. Support for the death penalty peaked in 1994, at 80%.

Last year, 77% of Republicans, 55% of independents and 34% of Democrats said they are in favor of the death penalty.

Gallup will be updating its measure on support for the death penalty in the coming weeks. Please contact mediainquiry@gallup.com if you would like an embargoed copy of the findings.

Findings From the Global Law and Order 2022 Report

Gallup's latest global update on people's perceptions of their own security and faith in the rule of law in the second full year of the pandemic provides a sense of where the world stands today -- and where its biggest obstacles are.

Gallup's Law and Order Index uses four questions to gauge people's sense of personal security and their personal experiences with crime and law enforcement.

Progress stalled on two security metrics: The proportion of people who feel safe walking alone in the area where they live and confidence in police each ticked down one percentage point between 2020 and 2021.

About seven in 10 people worldwide in 2021 said they feel safe walking alone at night where they live (71%) and have confidence in their local police (70%).

Gallup had tracked gradual rises in these measures, but 2021 proved to be a stalling point for each. Both percentages remained higher than at most points since 2006, however.

Eleven percent of people worldwide say they had property stolen from them in 2021.

About one in nine (11%) said they had property stolen from them or another household member in the past year, and 6% said they were assaulted or mugged.

Afghanistan ranks lowest in the world on the Law and Order Index.

Afghanistan, with an index score of 51, also scored lowest on the index in both 2018 and 2019 and was not surveyed in 2020 because of the pandemic. As low as Afghanistan's score was in 2021, it represents an improvement over the previous score of 43 in 2019.

Gallup's surveys in Afghanistan in 2021 took place as the Taliban completed their takeover of the country in August and as the U.S. withdrew its troops. Although the country was in turmoil, the end of the Taliban's insurgency led to a marked drop in violence.

Most of the improvement came from Afghans feeling safer than they did in 2019 -- most of the increase was among men -- and being less likely to be victims of theft and assault. Although the 29% of Afghans who said they had their money or property stolen in 2021 is nearly three times the global average, the percentage who reported this was down substantially from 40% in 2019 and 50% in 2018. Fewer Afghans -- 13% -- reported being assaulted or mugged in 2021 and, while down from 22% in 2019, the percentage was twice as high as the global average (6%).

Afghans were the least likely in the world to feel safe walking alone at night (22%).

Read the Global Law and Order 2022 report.

Read/Listen to additional analyses on law and order:

 

 

The Gallup Vault: In 1954, most Americans assigned “some” or "a great deal" of blame to comic books for teenage crime.

More from the Gallup Vault:

• 1939: Fingerprinting U.S. Noncitizens
• 1951: The Opening Salvo in the War on Drugs
• 1954: Blaming Comics for Teen Delinquency
• 1954: Pointing the Finger When Teenagers 'Go Wrong'
• 1975: FBI Under Fire
• 1988: Executing Drug-Dealers Unpopular
• 1999: Columbine a Sign of Systemic U.S. Problems

Keep these important resources on hand.

• Historical trends on crime: This page contains U.S. public opinion trends on crime, dating as far back as 1965. Confidence in the police and criminal justice system, worries about crime and violence, and more can be found here.
• Gallup content archives on crime: Access Gallup content on crime dating back to 2005, including all articles, Q&As, podcast interviews and more.
• Global Law and Order 2022: Discover which countries scored the highest -- and lowest -- on our Law and Order Index, which measures people's sense of personal security and experiences with crime and law enforcement. Download the 2022 report to see how each country stacks up.

Want to talk? Our experts are available to speak with you.

“While most people do feel safe walking alone at night where they live, the 28% who do not represent millions of lives, small businesses and communities being stunted by the fear of crime or violence where they live. This statistic represents human potential lost and, in too many countries, a major part of the human development challenge.” -- Mohamed Younis, Editor-in-Chief at Gallup

Contact mediainquiry@gallup.com to schedule interviews with our experts.