"Many Americans Are Convinced Crime Is Rising In The U.S. They're Wrong"

[Thomas Hurt]

The consequences of christofascist fearmongering and scapegoating. From the article:

In other words, we feel the risk of crime more acutely. We are certain crime is rising when it isn’t; convinced our risk of victimization is higher than it actually is. And in a summer when the president is sending federal agents to crack down on crime in major cities and local politicians are arguing over the risks of defunding the police, that disconnect matters. In an age of anxiety, crime may be one of our most misleading fears.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/many-americans-are-convinced-crime-is-rising-in-the-u-s-theyre-wrong/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

[Newest Reality]

1. Sending Fascist Trump Troops needs an excuse. Maybe they can "secure" the polling places and mail?

[harumph]

2. I believe white collar crime is increasing.

[Hortensis]

7. Yes. Way too many give that a pass until it hurts them directly.

When Repubs speak of "crime," they mean violence on the streets. I remember how as crime rates dropped for over 30 years straight, many people we knew knew they were rising. "Everyone" knew that.

I'm hoping this period of of watching big-time white collar criminals at work as if they could never be arrested has been a big wake-up. I've read that many who made very good money honestly chose to switch to crime because they found breaking and being "above" the law more satisfying. (!) I've also heard a few of those ex- federal prosecutors we see on cable say these criminals are typically shocked and unbelieving when they're arrested as if they were ordinary people.

After these lessons on TV day after day, just maybe we'll put more of the fear of the people in them they should always have had...

[crickets]

8. +1

[Wellstone ruled]

3. Local News Stations

are all about if it bleeds it leads. Total nutso here in Vegas lately with this crap. As per the Metro stats,our number one Crime thing is Drunk Drivers wiping out innocent people.

[greenjar_01]

4. WhAt AbOuT cHiCaGo derp derp derp

[CentralMass]

5. From the NYT -violent crime down 2 percent. But murder in these 25 cities is up 16.1 percent ..

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/upshot/murders-rising-crime-coronavirus.html

[Hortensis]

6. Good post, thanks.

[NickB79]

9. Hell, I've been posting this article here since 2013

To try to convince fellow DUers with hard facts that we aren't seeing a spike in violent crime. It....doesn't get much traction.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/05/07/181998015/rate-of-u-s-gun-violence-has-fallen-since-1993-study-says

[Buckeye_Democrat]

10. Yes, it's been going down for years.

I try to avoid getting swayed too much by news stories and anecdotes, such as videos posted online. Much of that tragic stuff is never seen by me in my life, so I'll need some broad statistics before extrapolating that there's a growing problem with this or that.

Whether it's videos of "Karens" or Fox News focusing on the worst behavior during protests, I need better evidence that something is more widespread than in the past.