Americans are very concerned about violent crime, think that it is getting worse, don’t think deporting illegal alien criminals helps, and trust Republicans more than Democrats to reduce crime

Because Democrats are reluctant to catch and punish criminals, it is no surprise that a new Rasmussen Reports survey finds Americans trust Republicans more on crime—though the 5-percentage-point gap remains modest.

Even as murder rates fell last year to historic lows—and violent crime appears to be declining broadly—voters say crime is getting worse, by a margin of 4 percentage points. By the same 4-point margin, voters also reject the claim that stricter immigration policies reduce violent crime.

Women, minorities, conservatives, and people with the least education express the greatest concern about violent crime.

Women, the young, minorities, Democrats, the poor, and those with the least eduction think that violent crime has gotten worse over the last year. Those with the most education believe that the crime rate has improved the most.

While men, older people, Republicans, conservatives, and the least educated think that stricter immigration enforcement will help reduce violent crime, women, younger people, blacks, Democrats, and liberals, and the most educated disagree.

On what party is best at handling crime, Hispanics, whites and other believe it is Republicans while blacks strongly believe that it is Democrats. As we have pointed out many times, if you are lenient with black criminals, it is overwhelmingly blacks who are their crime victims.