Majority of Americans perceive more local crimes: Gallup

Over the past year, 56 percent Americans say their local areas saw rise in crime and 78 percent think crimes have increased nationwide, according to a Gallup Poll released Friday.

"The 56 percent of US adults who report an increase in crime where they live marks a five percentage-point uptick since last year and is the highest by two points in Gallup's trend dating back to 1972," Gallup said.

The company found the number of people who think there are more national crimes was the highest after it soared to 89 percent in 1992.

The percentage of people who worry about children's safety at school has increased the most, which is 13 points. And the reason is more likely to be recent high-profile school shootings, the poll added.

Gallup said the findings this time, which are from an Oct 3-20 poll, "are well above the 44 percent average for local crime and 67 percent average for national crime since 1989" since it started to do the polls for both questions simultaneously.