Something shifted in America after 2020. While actual crime statistics tell one story, the perception of safety in our cities has taken a different turn entirely. Residents across the country report feeling less secure walking their neighborhoods at night, even in areas where police data shows crime rates holding steady or declining. This disconnect between reality and perception has created a fascinating puzzle for researchers, city planners, and anyone trying to understand what makes a community feel safe.
Certain cities have experienced this shift more dramatically than others. Through analyzing survey data, local polling, and social sentiment research from 2020 through 2025, a clear pattern emerges of urban areas where residents’ fear has spiked at rates that outpace national trends. These aren’t necessarily the cities with the highest crime rates, which makes the findings all the more intriguing. Let’s explore the six cities where fear of crime has climbed fastest in recent years.
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis has become the poster child for urban fear in America. In 2024, Memphis reportedly had one of the highest murder rates among America’s largest cities, following Baltimore at the top in 2023, a shift reflecting what many residents describe as an overwhelming sense of vulnerability walking their own streets. The homicide levels in the summer of 2020 far exceeded previous peaks during the study period, amid COVID lockdowns and widespread protests against police violence after George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police in May. What makes Memphis particularly striking is the sustained elevation of violent crime even as other cities recovered.
Memphis ranked among the top large cities for both violent and property crimes, leading in aggravated assault, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. Though Memphis saw a 30 percent decrease in homicides by the end of 2024, with overall crime dropping to a 25-year low across major categories, the perception gap remains enormous. Residents still report avoiding entire neighborhoods after dark, and businesses continue struggling with theft and safety concerns that have fundamentally altered daily life since the pandemic began.
Washington, DC
Some cities, like Washington, DC, also saw violence continue to surge in 2023, bucking the national downward trend and amplifying anxiety among both residents and the millions who work in the nation’s capital. The disconnect between political power and street-level safety became impossible to ignore. Here’s the thing: when the capital itself feels unsafe, it sends ripples of concern across the entire country…