America's Faulty Perception of Crime Rates*|*Lauren-Brooke Eisen

Older, sober, higher income folks just don't commit as much crime as they used to. Of course, your results may vary.

Government statistics show that, except for some small blips, serious crime has decreased almost every year from 1994 through 2013. For over a decade

Gallup has found that the majority of Americans polled believe crime is up, contrary to the fact that crime rates have plummeted in almost every small and large city since the 1990s.

This is not to say that all cities and areas are experiencing decreases in violent crime year after year, but the overall rate of violent crime is significantly lower than historic levels.