A record-high percent of Americans in a recent Gallup poll said that local crime in their area has increased over the last year.
Fifty-six percent in the poll released on Friday said there was more local crime than a year ago, the highest the number has been since Gallup began collecting data on the issue five decades ago.
Perception of an increase in crime saw a massive 13-point jump last year, increasing from 38 percent in 2020 to 51 percent in 2021, amid reports of a wave of violent crime. However, despite perceptions on both sides of the aisle of an increase in crime, the FBI reported earlier this month that violent crime and property crime remained largely consistent last year.
The perception of local crime in 2022 breaks down sharply along partisan lines, with 73 percent of Republicans saying local crime has increased compared to the 42 percent of Democrats who said the same.
Perceptions of increasing national crime are also up compared to last year — at 78 percent — but didn’t break Gallup’s record for the statistic.
Republicans are much more likely to believe crime is increasing at the national level as well, with 95 percent saying as much, compared with 61 percent of Democrats.
The high GOP perception of crime coincides with an effort by Republicans to make rising crime a central issue in this year’s midterm elections.
Americans in Friday’s poll also said they have become increasingly worried in the last year that their children could be harmed at school. Those concerns rose 13 points in the last year, from 34 percent in 2021 to 47 percent in 2022. Earlier this year, the U.S. was rocked by a deadly shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two adults.
The Gallup poll was conducted from Oct. 3 to Oct. 20 with 1,009 adults and had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Reporting from The Hill.
