By John Dilulio, Jr., Professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton and nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Most Americans believe crime is on the rise, the streets of the nation's big cities are unsafe, and law-breaking is spreading to once serene urban neighborhoods and suburbs.
Crime is the number one issue in many mayoral races throughout the country.
For the most part, the answer is yes. There are at least 10 things to know about crime in America today. The more one knows, the clearer it is that both stronger responses from the justice system and more radical social-program interventions are needed to curb crime before it is too late. Crime is concentrated in urban America. Unless you are a minority citizen living in an urban, neighborhood, you are less likely to be assaulted, raped, robbed, burglarized, or murdered today than you were in 1980.