What the data says about crime in the U.S.
Federal statistics show dramatic declines in U.S. violent and property crime rates since the early 1990s.
John Gramlich
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Use our updated Global Indicators Database to explore survey findings from around the world
With new 2022 survey results just around the corner, here are five of the many insights from the newly added data available on the database.
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America’s incarceration rate falls to lowest level since 1995
The nationwide incarceration rate is 810 prison or jail inmates for every 100,000 adult residents ages 18 and older.
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Trump used his clemency power sparingly despite a raft of late pardons and commutations
Only two other presidents since 1900 – George W. and George H.W. Bush – granted fewer acts of clemency than Trump.
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The gap between the number of blacks and whites in prison is shrinking
Blacks have long outnumbered whites in U.S. prisons. But a significant decline in the number of black prisoners has narrowed the gap.
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California is one of 11 states that have the death penalty but haven’t used it in more than a decade
More than a third of the states that allow executions haven’t carried one out in at least 10 years or, in some cases, much longer.
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With another Supreme Court pick, Trump is leaving his mark on higher federal courts
Trump has successfully appointed more federal appeals court judges so far in his presidency than his two predecessors combined had at the same point in theirs. And with his nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Trump soon could install his second justice on the nation’s highest court, too.
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5 key takeaways about populism and the political landscape in Western Europe
People with populist views in Western Europe are more likely than those with mainstream views to distrust traditional institutions. While populist attitudes span the ideological spectrum in Western Europe, populist political parties are relatively unpopular in the region.
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As fatal overdoses rise, many Americans see drug addiction as a major problem in their community
The U.S. public’s concerns about drug addiction come amid increases in the number and rate of fatal drug overdoses across urban, suburban and rural communities.
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Q&A: How Pew Research Center identified bots on Twitter
For a recent study on automated accounts and Twitter, we had to answer a fundamental question: Which accounts are bots and which accounts aren’t? Read a Q&A with Stefan Wojcik, a computational social scientist at the Center and one of the report’s authors, on how he and his colleagues navigated this question.
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