Despite a sharp decline in the United States' violent crime rate since the mid-1990s, the majority of Americans continue to believe the nation's crime problem is getting worse, as they have for most of the past decade. Currently, 68% say there is more crime in the U.S. than there was a year ago, 17% say less, and 8% volunteer that crime is unchanged.
In contrast to the 68% of Americans who say crime is getting worse nationally, 48% say crime in their local area is worsening. However, the trend in perceptions of local crime follows the same pattern. Nearly half of Americans say there is more crime where they live today than there was a year ago, similar to the percentage saying this in the past several years, as well as when crime was rising in the early 1990s.