Crime fears - Roper Starch Worldwide statistics on attitudes towards crime

American Demographics, July, 1997

Reported crime is down in the U.S., but many Americans still have their guard up. About half of U.S. adults say crime and lawlessness is one of the nations most pressing problems. The share who say crime is among the one or two things they are most concerned about has leveled off since 1994. Yet crime still tops the list of concerns about the nations welfare, and crime worries are well above the levels of the 1980s or 1970s. These data suggest that concern about crime has become an ingrained part of the American lifestyle.

The share of adults who name crime among their top two or three rose sharply in the early 1990s, according to Roper Starch Worldwide. Between 1991 and 1995, the percentage almost doubled, from 29 percent to a record high of 54 percent. Although the current share is 5 percentage points lower than the peak, crime still ranks much higher than other issues we track. The next closest are having enough money to live on, at 35 percent, and the way young people think/act, at 34 percent.

Crime concern is broad-based, suggesting that law and order will continue to be foremost in peoples minds. Crime is the number-one problem most often cited by people of virtually all ages and household incomes. Thats a very different picture than the early 1970s, when crime was much more likely to be seen as a problem by older Americans, Republicans, the poor, and people in the Northeast, the South, and big cities.

Ongoing crime worries have created growing markets for crime-prevention products and services. About six in ten Americans say they have taken some step to protect themselves from crime. But the share who have done something and the average number of things they have done (two) have not changed significantly in the past two years.