I was reading the article from the Pew research on recent poll numbers, and was wondering if anyone knew if national crime stats have actually gone down? (Reflecting the impression that the poll indicates.) My guess is they haven’t. I’m lost in other projects at the moment, but would be curious if anyone has good sources or knowledge on this?

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 month ago

    Violent crime has been consistently been dropping for decades. In certain areas petty crime has risen.

    Times are getting tough, I expect petty crime like shoplifting food to increase.

      • Fondots@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Anecdotally, really just shoplifting in general.

        I work in 911 dispatch, been there for about 7 years, so long enough to have a decent feel for how things have changed since before COVID.

        And while I’m not keeping a personal tally, it definitely seems like over the last couple of years I’ve been getting a whole lot more calls about shit like people stealing a single red bull from a convenience store. (Yes, they call 911 for that sometimes, and we also answer a lot of the 10-digit non emergency lines, it all pretty much has to go through us one way or another, it’s the same cops responding whether it’s an emergency or not so at some point it has to end up with central dispatch)

        We actually have a couple convenience stores with security guards now because of this.

    • blueworld@piefed.worldOP
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      1 month ago

      Thank you for actually answering the question with a source, rather then hearsay or conjecture without sources.

      To answer from a quote:

      Examining trends over a longer timeframe, violent crimes are below levels seen in the first half of 2019, the year prior to the onset of the COVID pandemic and racial justice protests of 2020. There were 14% fewer homicides in the study cities in the first half of 2025 than in the first half of 2019. Similarly, reported aggravated assault (-5%), gun assaults (-4%), sexual assault (-28%), domestic violence (-8%), robbery (-30%), and carjacking (-3%) were lower in 2025

  • douglasg14b@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Crime is up across the board if you consider illegal actions by federal agents to also be crimes.

    It’s just going unpunished and unrecorded in an official capacity

  • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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    1 month ago

    Think about how much propaganda we are fed. The right tried to tell us that all major cities are horrible crime ridden deathtraps and it’s just not true. I can walk through my city any time and be fine. Now people may not feel safe but feelings aren’t what is actually happening.

    What is proven is that fear gets clicks, and so the more you amp up that things are unsafe the more people will click.

    • bizarroland@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I mean, crime was majorly up in the 1970s when the lead saturation in the population was at its highest, but since we got rid of leaded gasoline, crime has been on a consistent downturn ever since.

      People are still treating crime as if it were the 70s and not 50 years later when the fundamental issue that caused the crime spike to begin with has been dealt with.

      Once the last people that were heavily saturated with lead die out in the next 20 years or so, we should start to be able to deal with this rationally, I hope.

      • octobob@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        I don’t think many people in the 70-80 age range are out there committing crimes.

        Also I had lead water pipes for years. Other than some stupid stuff I did as a kid like run from the cops to avoid an underage, I wasn’t exactly committing any serious crimes. Crime is more often than not a result of the circumstances someone grows up in, like poverty, friends and neighbors, no opportunities, etc.

        • Sunsofold@lemmings.world
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          1 month ago

          You might be surprised how many old people commit crimes. They aren’t tagging houses or robbing banks and museums (usually) but they can do a lot of other things. Petty theft, drunk driving, sexual offenses, etc.

          And the effect of lead is subtle, like toxoplasmosis. It’s not a ‘touched lead, now I’m guaranteed to become a serial killer’ effect. It’s more like the lead dulls your ability to think ‘I probably shouldn’t do X,’ so you have a higher probability of doing things that get you into trouble.

  • switcheroo@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Given how many felons are currently in office and stinking up the WH, I’d say way more crime is happening now. It’s just all done by our so-called government. Look at how many pending lawsuits are going on.

    Nah, more crime.

  • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Crime is legal now. Well only if you are the president or rub elbows with him, that is