The overestimation of crime rates is one of the most enduring and prevalent misperceptions in the U.S. Despite evidence clearly pointing to declines in various measures of crime in essentially every year over the last few decades, majorities of Americans during this same time span have consistently said crime has […] Read more »
Ten Takeaways about Americans’ Views of Guns
The National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Dallas, Texas this week comes after three of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history, which have all occurred in the past seven months. These three massacres — at an outdoor concert in Las Vegas, Nevada, a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas and […] Read more »
Bright Line Watch Report on American Democracy
In April 2018, Bright Line Watch conducted its fifth expert survey, and its third public survey, on democracy in the United States. Between April 9 and 22, we surveyed an expert sample of 935 political science faculty at American universities and a nationally representative sample of 2,000 adults. Respondents in […] Read more »
6 in 10 say ban assault weapons, up sharply in Parkland’s aftermath
Support for new gun laws has risen sharply, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows, including for anti-gun-violence legislation in general and a ban on assault weapons in particular. Large and bipartisan majorities also back raising the legal age to buy long guns and enacting “red flag” gun-confiscation laws. CONT. […] Read more »
Most Still Favor Stricter Gun Laws, But It’s Fading As A 2018 Voting Issue
The gun issue is beginning to wane in voters’ minds ahead of the November midterm elections, a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds. While almost half of all registered voters (46 percent) say a candidate’s position on gun policy will be a major factor in deciding whom to vote for, that […] Read more »
Where Americans See Eye to Eye on Incarceration
… For years, reformers have focused on two problems with the United States’ approach to incarceration: First, an unusually large number of Americans are in incarcerated compared with other nations. Second, reformers charge that our criminal justice system is too often unfair and inequitable. Incarceration reform is unusual in today’s […] Read more »