The U.S. public thinks crime is a serious problem and believes that crime is worse today than it was in 2006. This finding was consistent across national surveys conducted in the fall of 2007 by three different organizations: Gallup;1 the Center for Media, Crime, and Justice at John Jay College;2 and Third Way,3 a Washington, D.C., think tank. Yet this perception runs counter to the facts: crime rates have dropped off dramatically since the early 1990s for both violent and property crimes.
