Georgians Feel Safer Than Ever

The FINANCIAL — Many years ago, criminologists realized that it’s more reliable to ask citizens about crime than to take the police’s word for it.

Especially considering the remarkable decrease in reported crimes in Georgia over the last decade, a public crime survey was deemed necessary.  As you no doubt know, the CSS has confirmed every year what everyone in Georgia already realized: the frequency of crime has dropped to almost nothing.

Every year for the past three years, Georgian Opinion Research Business International has conducted a Crime and Security Survey for the Georgian Ministry of Justice and the EU.  The study is meant to shine a light on crime that was committed, but not necessarily reported to or by the police. 

Public opinion sometimes lags behind reality, but it did not take long after this new environment of safety for Georgians to feel safe.  This may have come from the government constantly blowing its “we defeated crime” horn.  It may be that Georgians were so used to their violent and unsafe recent history that it was easy to recognize a significantly safer environment.  Whatever the reason, Georgians in 2010 felt largely safe and secure, and these feelings became near universal over the next two years.

In 2010, only 3% of respondents said that they felt unsafe at any point during the day, and 5% said they were unsafe at night.  These numbers dropped consecutively, so that now, only 1% of Georgians feel unsafe during the day, and 2% at night.  These feelings of safety have spread to every aspect of life, including the near universal worry that parents have for their children.

Even in 2010, there were still a significant portion of parents who felt their child may not be well protected enough in school.  With the drop in crime, and possibly assisted by the institution of “mandatories (police officers stationed in schools),” this changed quickly over three years. 

27% of respondents said their child was somewhat or absolutely unprotected and only 16% felt completely at ease with their children’s safety in school.  These numbers shifted by a great margin, and in 2012 the number of fearful parents fell to 4%.  Well over half of respondents felt children were “absolutely protected” in school, and a third felt the security in schools was better than not.  These numbers will be of particular interest if these mandatories are removed from schools as proposed.  If this happens, we will be able to see any effects when we conduct the probable fourth wave of the CSS.

Perhaps the greatest effect this growing feeling of safety has had is a sort of feedback loop.  Safe citizens are less likely to carry weapons, take combat classes, or to travel in “packs.”  This move away from a violent mindset also decreases the ease with which anyone can use these safety measures for aggressive purposes if they feel threatened.  It also seems likely that when going out with your friends, if the threat of being accosted or attacked is no longer on your mind, there is an improvement on the general feeling of calm in the streets.

In 2010, there were already very few people who were carrying weapons (1%) or taking self-defense courses (4%).  The only “security measure” still somewhat prevalent is traveling with large groups at night: 14% of respondents relied on safety in numbers in 2010.  This number has declined to 8% over two years.  Self-defense course enrollment and weapons showed no real change, likely because there was not really any downward movement possible.

This poll was conducted in the spring of 2012 and surveyed 3000 georgians, giving this data a 1.8% margin of error with 95% confidence.