Four in 10 Americans are afraid to walk alone at night - the highest rate since 1993 - as crime soars in Democrat-led cities

Four in 10 Americans are afraid to walk alone at night near their home, a new poll has revealed, amid soaring crime in Democrat-led cities.

The number of Americans saying they are scared to walk alone at night within a mile of their homes has not been this high since 1993, when the nation went through one of its worst crime waves in history. 

Between 1993 and 2021, an average of 35 percent US adults said they would be afraid to walk alone at night.

Now 40 percent of Americans express unease about safety when walking home in the dark, according to Gallup which has tracked the metric since 1965. 

Meanwhile, according to the new numbers, a near-record-high of 28 percent US adults worry 'frequently' or 'occasionally' that they will be murdered.

A third of Americans said they don't drive in certain areas of their communities because of concerns about crime, and 28 percent said their fears about crime keep them from attending events like concerts and sporting games. 

While violent crime has decreased nationwide, big cities across the US are struggling with a surge in assaults and murders - and burglaries are up across the board.

Austin has seen a significant increase in crime, with a 77 percent increase in car thefts, an 18 percent increase in aggravated assaults and a 30 percent increase in murders this year.

Meanwhile in Washington D.C., homicides and robberies are up 29 and 67 per cent from the same time period last year, with murders approaching levels not seen in two decades.

Neighboring Baltimore could end the year with under 300 killings for the first time since the riots over Freddie Gray's death in police custody in 2015.

In New York City, rapes, robberies, and assaults were up in 2022 from the previous year.

Rape - which rocketed in 2020 when streets were empty and unemployment rife due to unrest caused by the coronavirus - rose by 7 percent, with more than 120 occurring.

Assaults and theft throughout the city in 2022, meanwhile, showed a similarly pronounced rise, with felony assaults up 12 percent - 26,039 incidents compared to 22,835 seen in 2021 - and burglaries up an alarming 25 percent.

Shoplifting continues to be a major crisis in America's two largest cities, as thefts increased 64 percent in New York City and 61 percent in Los Angeles over the last four years.

The Council on Criminal Justice said that, while shoplifts have gone down slightly in New York through the first half of 2023, the rate remains high with over 90,000 incidents through November 5 according to the city's crime stats.

Los Angeles, on the other hand, remains a mess, with a shocking 109 percent increase in retail theft through the first six months of this year, the highest rise in the country.

Dallas has had the second highest increase in the first half of 2023, with shoplifting up 73 percent.

Six other major American cities have also seen shoplifting increases since 2019: Virginia Beach, Dallas, Raleigh, Boston and Pittsburgh.

Violent crime in the nation hit a peak in 1991 and has steadily fallen since then, with occasional peaks. While burglaries jumped in 2022, they still are less than the overall high registered in 1990.

Gallup surveyed 1,009 adults between October 2 and October 23 for the poll, released on November 16.