LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – There are just six days until Americans head to the polls to vote in the 2024 election.

In our WKYT poll, we asked you what your biggest issues were when choosing a candidate.

The top ranked were the cost of living and inflation. Followed by crime and safety.

We wanted to talk to industry experts about how data and statistics can influence or influence voters.

Dr. Victoria Collins is a professor at EKU’s School of Justice Studies. She is a published author with a passion for state crimes and crimes of the powerful.

Dr. Collins tells us that murders and campaigns are nothing new.

“It’s reminiscent of the Nixon administration, where we saw a lot of rhetoric about emboldening street crime in particular,” Dr. Collins said. “I think one of the most obvious examples would be George Bush, with Willie Horton, where he focused a lot as part of his campaign on Willie Horton, who was actually on a furlough and committed some crimes and you were able to put out a bunch of campaign ads and kind of perspective and fear about the issue and win that election.”

WKYT wanted to verify a popular claim being floated between the parties: Crime is on the rise across the country.

This is mostly false.

The FBI released data last month detailing more than 14 million criminal offenses across the country for 2023.

Violent crime in the US is down 3% from the previous year.

Here in Kentucky, it’s down 2 percent, according to state police.

Property crime fell across the country by 2 per cent and rose slightly in the Commonwealth by 1 per cent.

Motor vehicle theft is a category that has seen a big jump. Reports are up 13 percent nationally and 18 percent in the Bluegrass State.

Thefts are down in both the U.S. and Kentucky.

“In Kentucky in particular, which I think is really interesting, we’re 8th in the nation when it comes to violent crime rates and 12th when it comes to property crime, so Kentucky does really well when it comes to it’s about crime.”

However, it’s not just numbers and statistics. It’s also about perception.

“A Gallup poll showed that more people are worried about crime than they should be,” Dr. Collins said. “Most people, like 6 out of 10 Americans, are actually concerned about crime. But interestingly, if you ask them about their local communities, they say they’re not worried about their immediate local community, but we’re worried beyond that.”

I asked if the candidates’ backgrounds and backgrounds were being used against them, one as a prosecutor, the other as a criminal defendant. Both are frequently mentioned in campaign ads.

“Also, I think, and the stock markets will tell you this, there tends to be less concern with white-collar or corporate criminals,” she said. “For some reason we care less as a society. I think sometimes that’s because those crimes can be complicated and involve people in powerful positions. There is great concern about transnational crime. Harris is going to talk about her experience as a prosecutor, and I think people often equate that with cartels and stuff. We watch a lot of that on TV, so I think that can influence him as well.”

Looking at the bigger picture, crime has increased by about 5% over the past decade.

To verify some of the data, click here to see FBI numbers. If you would like to see a breakdown of Kentucky county crimes, click here.

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