Crime Is Down, But Americans Are Convinced It’s Rising

Three social scientists at Chapman
University have just released a revealing
report on American fears. Among other interesting bits of data,
it informs us that the item in its survey that Americans fear most
is walking alone at night, that people who watch true-crime TV are
more likely to be afraid of the future, and that 15.9 percent of
the country is at least somewhat scared of clowns.

Also, Americans are prone to thinking crime rates are getting
worse even when they’re actually improving. If you’re a regular
Reason reader, there’s a good chance you suspected that
already, but now you have some fresh numbers to back up those
suspicions:

“What we found when we asked a series of questions
pertaining to fears of various crimes is that a majority of
Americans not only fear crimes such as, child abduction, gang
violence, sexual assaults and others; but they also believe these
crimes (and others) have increased over the past 20 years,” said
Dr. Edward Day who led this portion of the survey. “When we looked
at statistical data from police and FBI records, it showed crime
has actually decreased in America in the past 20 years.
Criminologists often get angry responses when we try to tell people
the crime rate has gone down.”

Despite evidence to the contrary, Americans do not feel like the
United States is becoming a safer place. The Chapman Survey on
American Fears asked how they think prevalence of several crimes
today compare with 20 years ago. In all cases, the clear majority
of respondents were pessimistic; and in all cases Americans believe
crime has at least remained steady. Specific crimes queried in the
survey were: child abduction, gang violence, human trafficking,
mass riots, pedophilia, school shootings, serial killing and sexual
assault.

Here’s a handy chart:

While the numbers for riots and serial killings are not
majorities, both go over 50 percent if you add the people who say
the threats occur about the same amount now as 20 years ago. So you
never have a majority saying a crime has declined.

Yes, yes, you say, but what was that thing you said
about clowns? Glad you asked:

N.B.: They didn’t survey anyone under the age of 18, so these
numbers don’t capture those of us who aren’t afraid of Bozo now but
used to run screaming from the room whenever Sesame Street
showed this little John-Wayne-Gacy-makes-time-run-backwards
film:

Anyway. I’ve only scratched the surface of the study. To explore
it for yourself, go
here.