The proportion of Americans who say they or their family members were victims of crime in the past year has dropped to its lowest level in at least two decades.
This is the conclusion reached by Gallup, who conducted a survey of more than a thousand American adults from all states, as well as the city of Washington, in September and October this year. 13% of respondents said they were victims of one crime in the last 12 months, and 20% said that someone in their family was hurt during the same period of time. Both rates are the lowest since Gallup began conducting polls on the topic in 2000. The respondents named seven types of crimes that they or their relatives have become victims of: burglary, simple theft, car thefts, vandalism, theft with aggravated circumstances (violent or threatened theft of money or property), physical or sexual violence. The survey also showed a decrease in these types of crime in cities (-6%), rural areas (-4%) and in households with low (-6%), medium (-5%) and high (-3%) incomes.
Newspaper headline:
The number of victims has decreased