Biden’s State of the Union speech missed the mark on crime  

Crime is a problem in this country, but the fear of crime is it’s a more serious and pressing problem. In fact, fear of crime is on the rise these days. far exceed The fact of crime as an element of people’s lives.

crime and fear of crime It will play a key role in the 2024 presidential election campaign. President Biden and former President Trump appear to offer very different approaches to these issues.

President Trump is trying to lend campaign pride to crime and the fear of crime, whatever that means. distort the facts. He links it to illegal immigration, which polls show is at the top of the list of issues Americans are concerned about. teeth of greatest concern.

Ash did Mr. Trump has used his campaign to drum up fear of crime and persuade voters that he cannot afford another four years of Biden’s administration.

In contrast, Mr. Biden try to The idea is to convince voters that the crime problem is not as bad as they think, and that it is not as scary as they think. He wants the public to recognize him for making America safer during his first term as president. show He’s not sleeping on the crime problem.

It’s as difficult as threading a needle. And if the president’s State of the Union address is any indication, Biden has yet to figure out how to thread it. If he wants to be successful in his re-election campaign, the president will have to develop a more strategic plan to demonstrate that he understands voters’ fears and has a plan to address them.

Let’s first look at the crime terror problem in this country, and then look at the different approaches Biden and Trump have taken to date to it.

NewsNation Report Capture the essence of the problem When you say “”new data Although the United States shows that crime is decreasing,recent votes It shows that Americans’ fear of crime is at its highest in 30 years. ” Among the major crime categories, homicides, other violent crimes, and property crimes have all recorded significant declines in recent years. The exception is auto theft, which has increased by more than 33%.

However, in a Gallup poll in November 2023, found Sixty-three percent of respondents continue to believe that America’s crime problem is extremely serious. They also believe the problem has gotten worse over the past year.

92% of Republicans hold that view, as do 78% of independents and even 58% of Democrats. Additionally, 40% of people Gallup spoke to said they were afraid to walk alone at night within one mile of their home.

fear of crime There is a correlation income and place to live. Fear of crime is most pronounced among low-income people living in cities.

According to Gallup, it’s been 30 years since fear of crime was as high as it is today. But unlike today’s situation, America at the time was experiencing “one of the worst crime waves” in history, as Gallup points out.

commentator blame the mediaHe pointed out that stories of crime are widely circulated through social media, stirring up fear of crime. However, economist John Roman When observed, Something else is causing the separation. Americans, he says, are becoming increasingly sensitive to and bothered by all signs of “disorder” around them. They translate this general concern about disorder into a growing fear of crime.

According to Roman’s report, hypersensitivity to disability is particularly acute among older adults.The average age of the American population is To increase that susceptibility, and with it a corresponding increase in fear of crime, is predictable.

But after listening to Biden’s State of the Union address, I wasn’t sure he and his advisers understood that we were facing the real fear of a crime epidemic.And the National Guard scene Patrolling the New York City subwayIt may make things worse.

Actually Biden I didn’t say anything about the crime until 50 minutes had passed.The content of his 1 hour 20 minute speech. At that point, he acknowledged that “all Americans have the right to the freedom to be safe,” but argued that “America is safer today than it was when I took office.”

From there, he continued to tout his crime-fighting record, saying, “Through the American Rescue Plan… we made the largest investment in public safety in history.” As a result, “last year saw the steepest decline in the homicide rate in history,” the president said. Violent crime has fallen to its lowest level in more than 50 years. ”

All of that is true, but simply telling people the facts won’t allay people’s fears.

He spoke specifically about gun violence, again focusing on the administration’s policies rather than fears of widespread crime and disorder. “By creating the first-ever Office of Gun Violence Prevention in the White House… we accomplished something,” Biden said. He promised that if re-elected, he would “support cities investing in more community police officers, more mental health workers, and more community violence interventions.”

It all makes sense as a response to the crime problem, but it seemed a bit tone deaf as a response to fear of the crime problem. Compare Mr. Biden’s approach to Mr. Trump’s, who is clearly fearful of the crime problem.

On Saturday, during a campaign rally in Rome, Georgia, the former president made the issue the center of his speech. Ten minutes into his nearly two-hour speech, President Trump turned his attention to the story of “one life taken from us,” that of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student who died while jogging late last month. I brought up the incident. .

He used Riley’s tragic death to paint in vivid terms the problem of crime and the fear it engenders, and, as he often does, connect both to the border crisis. President Trump didn’t mince words, accusing Biden of “intentionally” releasing Riley’s killer into our country and highlighting what he called Biden’s “freedom to kill” border policy.

“Joe Biden has no remorse, no remorse, no compassion, no compassion, and most of all, no intention of stopping this deadly invasion he stole,” Trump said. Precious Laken’s beautiful life in America. ” And in a key passage, he spoke of the fear of crime as a fact of American life.

Americans, especially the “suburban women” whose votes he needs, crave “security,” in his words. “They don’t want illegal immigrants knocking on their door.”

In response to that concern, Trump made a simple, easy-to-understand promise. “I will stop the murders. I will stop the bloodshed. I will end the suffering of the people, the pillage of the cities, the plundering of the towns, the violation of the people, and the subjugation of the country.”

Please try to imagine. Imagine this scared American faced with a choice between a candidate who touts “creating the first-ever Office of Gun Violence Prevention in the White House” and a candidate who says he will “stop murder.” please look.

If Biden is to win votes, he will need to put fear of crime at the top of his agenda. He did what he couldn’t do in his State of the Union address, conveying that he truly understands the pervasiveness of fear and that restoring order to the lives of ordinary Americans will be his top priority in his second term. Must be made clear.

Austin Surratt (@ljstprof) is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law and Political Science at Amherst College. The views expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of Amherst College.