Poll: 65% of Californians Fear Becoming a Crime Victim

A Public Policy Institute (PPIC) poll released yesterday reports that 65% of California respondents are fearful of becoming a crime victim.  This includes 70% of Latinos and 60% of African Americans.  73% of those living in Los Angeles are fearful of crime, which raises the question about the recent failure to recall District Attorney George Gascon and the election of liberal democrat Karen Bass as Mayor.  These numbers are similar to what polls reported in the 1980s and 1990s, as state voters rejected the soft-on-crime policies put in place years earlier by democrats.  The PPIC narrative questions the public perception that crime is at crisis levels:

“Over the past decade, crime rates have remained relatively low and stable across California. However, violent crimes such as aggravated assault and homicide began ticking up in recent years—as did auto thefts. Furthermore, anxiety has grown around mass shootings, although California’s rate of mass shootings is lower than in other states.”

As we have noted in the years since Proposition 47 became law, reported theft and drug crimes have dropped while the actual occurrence of these crimes have increased significantly.  Eliminating the consequences for these crimes has enabled this increase, and the decrease in people bothering to report them.  The polling reflects the public recognition that there is more theft and drug abuse in their cities and neighborhoods, along with the historic increase in violent crimes, which are almost always reported.