Nearly half of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of crime in new poll

Nearly one out of every two Americans disapproves of the Biden administration’s handling of crime in the United States, a poor showing for the newly minted president that comes amid widespread crime reports in cities across the country.

The ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Friday showed that “just 38% of adults overall approve of how Biden is handling the issue of crime in this country, with 48% disapproving.”

Specific administrations notwithstanding, the news service noted that respondents “divide almost exactly evenly on which political party they trust more to handle crime -- 36% pick the Republicans, 35% the Democrats,” which ABC said was “about the average difference between the parties on this question in polls going back to 1990.”

Crime rates have been increasing in the U.S. for most of the year compared to last year, though the rise comes as part of a longer two-decade-long downward trend that began around the early 1990s. 

Notably, last year saw a significant murder spike throughout the U.S.—about 25% compared to 2019—that occurred alongside widespread demonstrations, some of them violent and destructive, as well as mass unemployment related to the COVID-19 lockdowns.