Four in 10 Americans are afraid to walk alone at night – the highest rate since 1993 – as crime rises in Democrat-led cities
A new poll shows that four in 10 Americans are afraid to walk alone at night near their home, amid rising crime in Democratic-led cities.
The number of Americans who are afraid to walk alone at night within a mile of their home has not been this high since 1993, when the nation suffered one of the worst crime waves in history.
Between 1993 and 2021, an average of 35 percent of American adults said they would be afraid to walk alone at night.
According to Gallup, which has been tracking this indicator since 1965, 40 percent of Americans now express concern about their safety when walking home after dark.
Meanwhile, new data shows a near-record 28 percent of American adults worry “often” or “sometimes” about being murdered.
A new Gallup poll shows that four in 10 Americans are afraid to walk alone at night near their home
One-third of Americans said they did not drive in some areas of their communities because of fear of crime, and 28 percent said fear of crime kept them from attending events such as concerts and sports games.
Nationally, violent crime dropped slightly by 1.7 percent in 2022, according to the FBI, but liberal cities are struggling with a spike in assaults and murders, and burglaries are common.
Austin has seen a significant increase in crime this year, with a 77 percent increase in car thefts, an 18 percent increase in aggravated assaults and a 30 percent increase in murders.
Meanwhile, in Washington, homicides and robberies are up 29 percent and 67 percent compared to the same period last year, and murder rates have reached levels not seen in two decades.
Neighboring Baltimore could end the year with fewer than 300 homicides for the first time since the riots over the 2015 death of Freddie Gray in police custody.
In New York City, rapes, robberies and assaults increased in 2022 compared to the previous year.
Rapes, which spiked in 2020 when streets were empty and unemployment was rampant due to coronavirus unrest, increased by 7 percent, with more than 120 rapes.
The number of Americans who say they are afraid to walk alone at night within a mile of their homes has not been this high since 1993.
Meanwhile, in 2022, assaults and thefts across the city showed a similarly marked increase: assaults increased by 12 percent – 26,039 incidents compared to 22,835 recorded in 2021 – and burglaries increased by an alarming 25 percent.
Shoplifting continues to be a major crisis in America’s two largest cities, as thefts have increased 64 percent in New York and 61 percent in Los Angeles over the past four years.
The Council on Criminal Justice found that while shoplifting rates declined slightly in New York City in the first half of 2023, the rate remains high as of November 5, with over 90,000 incidents reported as of November 5, according to the city’s crime statistics. .
On the other hand, Los Angeles continues to be plagued by theft, with a shocking 109 percent increase in retail thefts in the first six months of this year, the highest increase in the country.
Dallas saw the second-highest increase in the first half of 2023, with shoplifting up 73%.
Six other major U.S. cities have also seen an increase in shoplifting since 2019: Virginia Beach, Dallas, Raleigh, Boston and Pittsburgh.
Violent crime in the country peaked in 1991 and has since declined steadily, peaking at times. While burglaries are up in 2022, they are still less than the overall high recorded in 1990.
For the survey released Nov. 16, Gallup surveyed 1,009 adults between Oct. 2 and Oct. 23.
