40% of Americans are afraid to walk alone at night — most in decades, poll says

The spike in fear comes as violent crime has decreased nationwide.

According to new polling, Americans are isolating themselves from their communities because they are concerned about certain crimes.

According to the FBI, the increase in fear comes as violent crime has decreased nationwide while property crime has increased.

According to a Nov. 16 news release, a recent Gallup poll found that 28% of Americans are concerned about being murdered on a regular or irregular basis. That’s an almost-record high.

The Gallup poll polled 1,009 adults between October 2 and October 23, with a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

Meanwhile, half of U.S. adults are concerned that their car will be stolen or broken into, 37% are concerned about being mugged, and 32% are concerned about being attacked while driving, all of which are near-record highs.

According to the poll, the vast majority of Americans, 72%, are concerned about becoming victims of identity theft.

This increased fear has had a negative impact on Americans’ daily lives, causing them to curtail routine activities.

According to the poll, four out of ten Americans — the highest number in three decades — are afraid to walk within a mile of their homes alone at night. According to a 2016 Brennan Center for Justice report, the last time there were such widespread concerns about walking alone was in 1993, when nationwide crime was at an all-time high.

Concerns about crime prevent one-third of Americans, 34%, from driving in certain areas of their communities, while 28% avoid attending events such as concerts, fairs, and sporting events.

More than a quarter, 28%, of those polled said their fear of crime has kept them from approaching strangers.

Fears out of step with crime data

According to government data, these increased fears are largely at odds with the downward trend in violent crime in the United States.

According to data, after a relatively minor increase in 2020, violent crime fell back to pre-pandemic levels of 380 offenses per 100,000 people in 2022.

Property crimes, specifically burglaries, increased to 847,522 offenses in 2022. However, it has declined significantly from a high of more than 2.8 million offenses in 1990.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, while increases in urban crime are “serious cause for concern,” “history shows that these trends do not necessarily signal the start of a new nationwide crime wave, and even with these increases, crime and murder rates remain near historic lows.”