Silver State Times

For the first time since 2016, a Gallup survey reported that a majority of Americans are very concerned about criminal activity.

In the Gallup poll, 53% of respondents said they worry a "great deal" about crime in the United States. A total of 27% of respondents rated their level of concern as a "fair amount," placing crime toward the top of a list of 14 national problems, following inflation and the economy.

"While overall crime has not reached levels seen in the 1980s and '90s, the homicide rate has been increasing in recent years," Jennifer Rubin said in an op-ed for The Washington Post, "Whatever the relative crime rate, voters see the current rate as unacceptable."

In a separate Gallup study conducted in October, 51% of Americans reported a perceived increase in local crime — an increase of 38% from 2020. The last time most people felt this way was in 2009, and the last time more than 51% felt this way was in 1992.

Rubin said that white Republicans are not the only demographic worried about growing crime rates, The Washington Post reported. Seventeen percent of Black voters who took a Pew Research Center survey listed crime or violence as their primary concern.

Rubin said that President Joe Biden and other Democrats have addressed crime as if it were exclusively a gun issue, leading Americans to believe that the left doesn't prioritize crime, The Washington Post reported.

"Biden can use his bully pulpit to advance the issue, either by convening a White House summit on crime or announcing new efforts to focus on violent crime in particular," Rubin said in the op-ed.

Biden has implemented measures to crack down on "ghost guns" by requiring new background checks, mandating serial numbers on components of gun-kits and mitigating the online sale of these guns, Politico reported. Ghost guns are an increasingly preferred weapon for criminals due to not having serial numbers and the fact that they can be obtained without a background check.

A White House correspondent for Politico said these measures are merely Biden attempting to boost low approval ratings regarding his handling of crime. A recent survey conducted by ABC-Ipsos found that just 38% of people approve of Biden's approach to crime.

Nevada had a rate of 460 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2020, which is higher than the national average of 399 violent crimes per 100,000 people, The Center Square reported.

A recent survey conducted by WalletHub tried to identify best states in the country to be a police officer. Nevada ranked 46th on the list, placing it among the 10 worst states in which to work as a police officer.

Reuters/Ipsos recently conducted a two-day nationwide survey that showed 52% of Americans do not approve of Biden's performance as president. The survey reported that, after economic issues, crime is the second-most critical problem for Americans.