Most people think that crime in the U.S. has increased over the past year, either a lot (40%) or a little (23%). Few (8%) say it’s decreased, and 19% say it’s stayed the same. Republicans are 23 percentage points more likely than Democrats to say crime has increased a lot nationally over the past year. However, both groups are far more likely to say it’s increased than to say it’s decreased.

Partisan opinions on one specific type of crime, mass shootings, contradict the direction of views on national crime rates – Democrats are 9 percentage points more likely than Republicans are to say the number of mass shootings has increased a lot in the past year…

Compared to the share of Americans who say crime has risen nationally, fewer say crime in their local community has increased a lot (15%) or a little (27%) over the past year. About one in 10 (9%) say it’s decreased locally, and 37% say it’s stayed the same. As with perceptions of national crime, the share who say local crime has increased a lot has fallen 7 points since we asked in January.