It's a Highly Resilient Fear

In a recent commentary in Slate, public-policy expert James Q. Wilson remarked that the steep drop in crime has helped take that issue off the table in the presidential election. He’s clearly correct in saying crime has been a nonissue thus far—”perhaps for the first time since 1964.” The odd thing, though, is that large numbers of Americans don’t feel crime has declined. In a new Gallup survey, people were asked whether there’s more or less crime in the U.S.