Since statistics are doctored today so often depending on whatever the current agenda is, a more accurate way to determine if crime is up or not would be to ask many people throughout the USA if they feel crime is up in their area. We could do that right here at bitgo. If thousands of people were interviewed and the majority said that crime was up in the area where they live, I would assume that crime is up.
Statistical information is doctored and invented all the time today. People have become experts at doctoring statistics. Heck, they may teach college level classes somewhere on that.
Would you believe automatically anything an advertising firm said? Look beyond any statistics they produce and it might be a very different story.
Before I believed any statistical information today I would have to know something about who produced the statistics, their goals (agendas), etc.
People in some big fancy California university might receive a grant to do a study of crime in the USA. We have no idea how they do their research. Do they do any actual field research, even in 'Fly Over' areas of the USA? Or do they sit in rooms at that university and use statistical information that somebody else came up with? What are their goals (agendas)? Maybe the governmental people who produced the grant money would like to see that crime has declined.
I have seen for myself how grant money is sometimes spent. The granting of governmental money can be very political. Is that surprising?
The one thing I know for a fact is that the area where I live in has seen an increase in crime, including violent crime. I have no doubt about that at all. And if my area of the USA, which is hardly a high population urban area, has seen an increase in crime, it would not surprise me that crime has increased throughout the USA.
And common sense is common sense. How likely is it that a criminal will attack you if he thinks you may have a concealed handgun? The criminal, if he has any sense, will go for the soft target. The criminal picks the house that is easy to break into. The criminal attacks the most defenseless potential victim.