In your opinion, which option best describes the current state of violent crime in America?

An extremely serious problem (35%) – "I think the numbers are skewed because crime is being underreported so things don't seem so bad, especially in bigger cities like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. I live in a much smaller "big" city that is supposedly "safe", but I will not walk there alone after dark."

• "The problem with this statistic is that many Metropolitan areas have over the years stopped sending their data in. Others have submitted beautified numbers, i.e. the Baltimore department admitted as much that their numbers don't necessarily match the numbers the FBI has. Reclassification of crimes like turning robbery into larceny also helped with this statistic. Sadly even something that's just supposed to be informative has been turned into a political instrument which can and should be manipulated to fit a specific narrative. The truth is not reflected in those numbers."

"Any casual follower of news in the local area can see that violent crime is not decreasing. The stats are not to be trusted when many agencies have stopped reporting to the FBI. Another example of a made up narrative not coincidentally timed prior to an election cycle."

A moderately serious problem (39%) – "Most crimes are not accurately reported or not reported at all. Major crimes are automatically reduced to misdemeanors in most large metropolitan cities and the suspects are set free without bail."

• "It depends on the city in which a person lives to know where crime is a significant problem. At least where I live, in a suburban city, it's mostly crime of theft with the occasional gun violence in outlying cities."

"Compared to the state of national affairs and the divided nation and the deplorable actions of some on the Supreme Court, action must be taken to solve even bigger problems than the violence. I believe in the trickle down effect. Also, the caveat of missing data is notable."

• "I believe crime is worse than what the numbers show. I have seen reports on how many departments don't report the numbers (even mentioned in this article) and how the Biden administration has changed the definition and criteria for violent crimes."

A not too serious problem (20%) – "Despite sensationalized headlines, the vast majority of people go through their days with no impact from crime and criminals, especially compared to places where organized crime is endemic."

• "Of course any violent crime is too much but these violent crimes are almost always a symptom of a larger problem we are failing to address; mental health issues, economic issues, food insecurity, etc. Positioning violent crime as the problem to be solved is the wrong way of looking at it. I don't think it's a serious issue as in we shouldn't be focusing on solving the "crime issue" itself. We need to be focusing on decreasing the situations where people want or feel like they need to resort to violent crime, or have access to things like weapons in mental health situations."

A not at all serious problem (6%) – "The media hypes every single crime creating a false narrative that triggers a tsunami of negative posts on social media. The algorithms embedded into all online news viewing then ramps up delivery of the bad crime diet. This results in the public's perception of increased crime despite the facts of a decline. Good news, reduced crime, is stuck in a slow news media boat while any crime is delivered via rocket ship to peoples' eyeballs!"