Fewer Americans see crime as a serious problem: Poll

Just under half of Americans say crime is a very or extremely serious problem, a decline from last year, according to a new Gallup poll.

The poll, released Tuesday, found that 32 percent of respondents think that crime is a “very” serious issue in the U.S., a decrease of 15 points from last year. Seventeen percent of respondents, meanwhile, think that crime is an “extremely” serious issue, 7 points lower than 2024.

The share of respondents to Gallup’s annual crime survey peaked in 2023, when 63 percent of those polled thought crime was a very or extremely serious problem. The mark has hit 60 percent on three other occasions: 2000, 2010 and 2016.

This year's survey marks the lowest share of respondents who think crime is a very or serious issue since 2018, when 48 percent of those polled said so. The all-time low came in 2004, when 42 percent of respondents to the survey said that crime was a very or serious issue.

Thirty-eight percent of respondents said crime is a “moderately” serious problem, while 8 percent said it is not too serious and 2 percent said it is not at all serious. 

According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting program, there were an estimated 359.1 violent crimes per 100,000 people in the country last year, a decrease of 5.4 percent relative to 2023 and 8.5 percent relative to 2020. 

Relative to 2023, the estimated murder, robbery and property crime rates decreased by 15.8, 9.7 and nine percent, respectively. The estimated number of rape crimes in 2024 also decreased, by 5.2 percent, from 2023 to 2024.

The poll comes as President Trump continues his crackdown on crime via the deployment of National Guard troops to cities across the country, including Washington, D.C., and Memphis, Tenn. The Trump administration is also in legal battles over deployments to cities such as Chicago and Portland, Ore. 

The survey, conducted over the phone from Oct. 1-16, polled 1,000 U.S. adults in all 50 states and the nation’s capital. It has a margin of error of four percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.