Feeling Safer.

Reflecting the downturn in crimes committed by and against adults, public opinion polls in the 1990s indicated that citizens felt safer in their homes and neighborhoods than they had in the 1980s. Polls also showed that in 1998, 48 percent of Americans thought that there was less crime in their local areas than in the previous year, while in 1989 only 18 percent responded that there was less crime. In 1998, in contrast to a poll taken ten years earlier, the number of people who thought there was less crime nationwide than in the previous year increased by 30 percent.

Crime Rates.

While violent crimes increased early in the decade, a consistent and sharp downward trend began in 1993. As assaults and property offenses declined nationwide, however, crime increased in suburban areas. Crime rates were highest in large metropolitan areas; however, by the end of the decade, smaller...