Jeff Asher, data analyst and consultant, argues that Americans are bad at perceiving crime trends. In Asher’s analysis, he cites Gallup poll results showing that Americans believe crime rose in 2014, the year recorded to have the lowest violent crime and murder rates since 1969.
Every year since 2000, Gallup, a workplace consulting and global research company has asked Americans how they describe crime locally and in the United States. Asher notes that, in the most recent annual poll released in October 2023, 63 percent of participants described crime in the United States as “Extremely Serious or “Very Serious.” In the same survey, 77 percent of participants said there was more crime across the nation than a year ago, a belief steadily rising in recent years.