In presenting himself as the "law and order" candidate for president, Donald Trump portrays a nation of lawlessness and disorder.
That grim picture may speak to the visceral fears of voters of a country "out of control," as Trump put it. It does not, though, reflect a trend of declining crime that has been unfolding over 25 years.
Crime figures are a malleable source of information. Depending on what time period is compared, and which crimes are considered, they can be used to tell a tale of progress or setbacks. Here's a look at some of Trump's recent statements, President Barack Obama's very different assertions and how they compare with the facts:
Trump
"Crime is out of control, and rapidly getting worse. Look what is going on in Chicago and our inner cities. Not good!" — Tweet.
"Violent crime has increased in cities across America." — Speech on Monday.
Facts
Violent crime has dropped dramatically since the early 1990s.
According to FBI data, the national violent crime rate last peaked in 1991 at 758 reported violent crimes per 100,000 people. In 2014, the latest year for which full data is available, the rate was 366 per 100,000 people.
Even so, Trump has some statistical support for claiming violent crime is up in big-city America.
The Major Cities Chiefs Association, a non-profit that works with urban police chiefs, finds that violent crime reported by some urban police departments rose from 2014 to 2015, and homicides alone were up in 44 of the big-city and county police departments, by this count.
One year's results, though, cannot be taken to mean that the overall trend of declining violent crime is changing.
There have been other upticks in violent crime in the past 15 years, even as rates have fallen over the longer period. In both 2005 and 2006, the number of violent crimes reported to the FBI increased 2.3% and 3.2% respectively. That was followed by five years of declines.
The FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report, the main source of data on crime, isn't a perfect measure because police departments voluntarily report their numbers and some departments may classify crimes differently. But the decline seen in the FBI's numbers has been mirrored in another nationwide crime measure, the National Crime Victimisation Survey published by the Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Trump
"According to the Chicago Tribune, there has already been more than 2,000 — 2,000 — shooting victims in Chicago alone this year. This epidemic of violence destroys lives, destroys communities and destroys opportunity for young Americans."
Facts
Trump accurately cited the newspaper's finding that more than 2,100 people have been shot in Chicago this year. But with Chicago homicides starkly rising, Trump were on solid ground in pointing to the reality that it has been a bloody year in that city.
