A new Rasmussen survey of likely voters says Republicans are trusted more than Democrats, by a 12-point margin, to better handle the issue of crime.
According to the survey, released Tuesday, 48 percent of likely voters trust Republicans while 36 percent trust Democrats more. The other 15 percent are not sure.
Another revelation of the Rasmussen survey is that 61 percent of voters believe violent crime is getting worse in the U.S. while only 13 percent believe the situation is improving. Twenty-four percent of survey respondents think the crime situation is staying about the same.
Rasmussen also reported that 81 percent of likely voters expect crime will be an important election year issue. This includes 48 percent who believe it will be “very important” in November.
“Nearly twice as many Republicans (81%) as Democrats (42%) believe the violent crime problem is getting worse,” Rasmussen said. “Sixty-two percent of unaffiliated voters think the problem is getting worse. Twenty-two percent of Democrats, but only eight percent of both Republicans and unaffiliated voters, say the problem of violent crime is getting better.”
Other findings of the Rasmussen poll include:
- More women voters (64%) than men (59%) see the problem of violent crime as getting worse, but more men (53%) than women (44%) trust the GOP to handle the issue.
- Older voters are more likely to believe the violent crime problem is getting worse. Voters under 40 are significantly more likely than their elders to say they trust Democrats more to deal with crime.
- Majorities of every racial category – 63% of whites, 56% of black voters and 59% of other minorities – think the problem of violent crime is getting worse. Fifty-five percent (53%) of whites, 29% of black voters and 47% of other minorities trust the GOP more to handle crime and law enforcement, while 35% of whites, 44% of black voters and 37% of other minorities trust Democrats more on the issue.
- The overwhelming majority of Republicans (88%) and Democrats (77%) trust their own party more to deal with the crime issue. Unaffiliated voters are more than twice as likely to trust Republicans (51%) as Democrats (24%) to handle crime and law enforcement issues.
The survey was taken from among 901 likely voters on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1-4 by Rasmussen Reports.
