Downtown Crime: Perception Versus Reality

A new study from the Brookings Institution reveals that Americans in four major cities — Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Seattle — believe that crime is out of control in downtowns. But the data shows that that’s not the whole story. While cities post-pandemic have seen an increase in particularly violent and property crimes, those increases haven’t happened in the downtowns, but in the areas that have been historically disadvantaged and disinvested in. So what accounts for this mismatch between what people are seeing downtown and what’s really happening?

We speak with Hanna Love, Senior Research Associate at the Brookings Institution, to find out. Love is co-author of the study, "The geography of crime in four U.S. cities: Perceptions and reality."