People's concern about personal safety at highest level in 30 years: Gallup

Forty percent of Americans say they are afraid to walk alone at night within a mile of their home, the highest number in three decades, a new poll found.

The last time this many Americans were concerned about crime was in 1993, during “one of the worst crime waves in U.S. history,” Gallup, who conducted the poll, reported.

Since then, the number of Americans who are worried about walking alone at night has hovered around 35 percent. Annual results ranged between 29 percent and 39 percent during that time.

“Gallup has measured Americans’ sense of personal safety from crime using this question since 1965, finding a record 48 percent worries in January 1982,” the report said, pointing to the period of high crime and the highly publicized New York City murder rate at the time.

Americans reported feeling the safest in October 2020 during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic while many people were still social distancing, Gallup reported. Still, responses bounced back to pre-pandemic levels by 2021.

The survey found that “relatively high proportions” of Americans believe the country has a serious crime problem and believe it has worsened over the past year.

Fear of crime is higher in lower-income households than in households earning more than $40,000 a year. It’s higher among residents living in cities than in the suburbs or in rural areas, the report found.

As expected, Gallup wrote, fear of walking alone at night is much higher among women than men. More than half, 53 percent, of female respondents said they do not feel safe walking at night within a mile of their home, while 26 percent of men said the same.

The survey was conducted Oct. 2-23.