Survey: U.S. crime is up -- but most Americans don't seem to have noticed

Serious crime in the U.S. began to fall in the mid-1990s and continued downward through 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Americans initially appeared to recognize the positive trend, with the drop in the violent crime rate between 1996 and 2001 — from 65 victimizations per 1,000 to 33 — coinciding with a sharp drop in the percentage saying crime was up.

The public was most positive in October 2001, just one month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when 41% believed there was more crime in the U.S., and 43% said there was less. These attitudes changed dramatically the next year — most likely related to the 2002 Washington, D.C.,-area sniper shootings that were still occurring at the time of the poll. The proportion of Americans who perceived that crime was worse jumped to 62% that year, and was consistently 66% or higher from 2005 to 2011.

Now, despite the setback in battling crime in the past two years, Americans are slightly more, rather than less, positive about the crime rate. The majority do say there has been more crime, but because the majority almost always say this, the relative percentage is more important.