There is half as much crime in the US right now as there was about 25 years ago. Both violent and property crime have declined pretty steadily since the early 1990s. But at any given time, if you ask Americans about it, between half and three-quarters of them will say that crime rates are going up.
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But the massive disconnect between what crime rates actually are and what many Americans think they are shows two things. One is that in general, Americans think large societal issues are getting way worse than they actually are. Most Americans, for example, think teen pregnancy is going up — when in actuality it recently hit a two-decade low. A lot of people, it turns out, could stand to be a lot more optimistic about the future.
The second is this: when you ask Americans whether crime is up in their area, many of them still overstate it, but not as many. Consistently, about 20 percent of Americans think crime isn't going up in their area, but is going up nationwide. That's because many Americans, particularly white Americans, are simply isolated from the reality of crime and punishment in the US.
