From FiveThirtyEight: Many Americans Are Convinced Crime Is Rising In The U.S. They’re Wrong. “The biggest challenge really, and we’re seeing this as a society across the board right now, is that even though our organizations, our businesses, our government entities are becoming more data driven, we as human beings are not.” (This is not happening in a vacuum. Politicians using fear as a motivator have worked to convince people of soaring crime for decades.)