Even while gangs increasingly mug, carjack, and gun people down on the streets of many major cities, fentanyl poisoning deaths take 100,000 American lives, and mass murder incidents happen with unsettling regularity, perceptions of crime are highly influenced by partisanship. Gallup finds that when a Democrat is president, Republicans see crime as more of a problem than do Democrats, with the reverse happening when a Republican is in the White House.
Competing narratives and poor information plague the national discussion over public safety. This makes it difficult to reach a political consensus on what should be done. Even as Gallup’s polling shows the belief that “crime is increasing locally is now at the highest point,” it notes, “In absolute terms, Americans have for decades exhibited a marked tendency to say that crime is increasing rather than decreasing, year in and year out.”
It’s difficult enough that public perception of crime is often untethered from reality, it’s even worse when the government agencies that are supposed to report, gather, and analyze crime are failing at an alarming rate.
The left-leaning criminal justice nonprofit The Marshall Project, in commenting on the FBI’s annual release of crime statistics last November, noted, “The nation’s most thorough crime data collection program concluded it’s possible crime went up, went down or stayed the same.” Why the uncertainty? It “largely stems from the fact that 2021’s data was more incomplete than any in recent memory. … This year about 7,000 police agencies, covering about 35% of the
