Recent polls suggest Utahns are more concerned about crime than they were just a few years ago. On a list of voters’ top concerns, “crime” was ranked at number seven.
The poll was created for Utah Foundation, a Salt Lake City-based group that has compiled crime statistics from the last few decades to show trends.
The findings suggest that while society may feel growing concern with crime, there has a been a drop in incidents over the past two decades.
According to the most recent and comprehensive crime data from 2014, overall violent crimes are down 34 percent in Utah and down 45 percent across the country. Property crimes have decreased 50 percent in Utah and 43 percent nationwide.
The takeaway?
“We shouldn’t be more afraid then we were in the past,” said Shawn Teigen, Research Director at Utah Foundation. “There was a lot more crime in the ’90s.”
There are some exceptions. Utah numbers show homicides were up 10 percent in 2014, compared to 2013, with 56 reported incidents. Rape saw an eight-percent increase from the year prior, with 994 reported cases.
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