ATLANTA — For the past few years violent crime has been an important issue for many Georgians. With government officials actively looking for solutions, 11Alive released a poll, in partner with SurveyUSA, to determine the main factors that they believe can lead to the increase and/or decrease in violent crime.
The survey questioned 950 adults from Georgia online from July 21 to July 24. The pool of adult survey respondents was weighted to U.S. Census targets for gender, age, race, education and home ownership.
Here are the results:
Over the past two years, has the amount of violent crime in Georgia increased? Decreased? Or stayed about the same?
64% Increased
4% Decreased
19% Stayed the same
13% Not sure
Which factors do the most to increase the amount of violent crime?
26% Police officers being ordered to overlook minor violations
34% Too little funding for programs to fight poverty
42% Gun laws that aren't strong enough
35% Too few jobs / a weak economy
36% Making it too easy for people charged with a crime to get out of jail before their trials
34% Too little funding for police departments
26% Prison sentences that aren't long enough
39% Too little funding for mental health services
Which factors would do the most to decrease the amount of violent crime?
28% Longer prison sentences
40% Stronger gun laws
36% Increasing funding for police departments
38% Making it harder for people charged with a crime to get out of jail before their trials
42% More jobs / a stronger economy
16% Police officers being ordered to focus more on minor violations
36% Increasing funding for programs that fight poverty
40% Increasing funding for mental health services