What Americans think about crime and how Kamala Harris deals with it

During her brief presidential campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris highlighted her extensive experience in criminal justice, a career that includes positions as an attorney, district attorney and Attorney General of California.

Our recent poll shows that Americans have broadly positive views of jobs that involve the criminal justice system, such as social workers and police officers. Within this overall positive context, Americans' views of the specific roles Harris has held, including attorney general and district attorney, are somewhat less positive.

Harris has framed the presidential election as a choice between a prosecutor and a felon. Voters are less sure how to assess the Harris-Trump comparison. While we found that Americans are much more likely to think Trump is a criminal than Harris, a larger share also believes Trump is tougher on crime. And just over a third believe Trump would be better at cracking down on crime than Harris as president.

Many of the criminal justice policies Harris has supported or helped to create over the course of her career are popular with Democrats and Republicans alike. They include her past initiatives to combat truancy and provide job training for nonviolent offenders, as well as proposals she may implement as president, such as setting a national standard for police use of force.

Most Americans believe the criminal justice system is too lenient toward many criminals, particularly those who have committed financial crimes—such as political corruption and corporate fraud—or personal crimes such as child abuse, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Illegal immigration is the most divisive form of crime: Most Democrats think the system's current response is too harsh or just right, and most Republicans say it is too lenient.

Feelings about jobs in law enforcement and criminal justice

Many criminal justice jobs are viewed more positively than negatively by most Americans. The jobs that are viewed most positively by respondents are forensic scientists (78% have a very or somewhat positive opinion of them), social workers (71%), police officers (68%), and highway patrol officers (63%). Aside from the jobs, police dogs (76%) and jury duty (69%) are also generally viewed positively.

Harris's previous jobs are viewed somewhat less positively than others included in the survey. Harris began her career as a lawyer, a profession that 51% of Americans view favorably. Following her legal career, she served as a prosecutor as San Francisco's district attorney from 2004 to 2011; 53% of Americans have a favorable opinion of district attorneys and 51% of prosecutors. Harris served as California's attorney general from 2011 to 2017; 48% have a favorable opinion of attorneys general. The only less popular occupations in the survey than the four Harris held are park ranger (46%) and CIA agent (47%). (Aside from occupations, police unions are also relatively unpopular, with only 45% having a favorable opinion of them.)

Democrats are significantly more likely than Republicans to have a positive opinion of Harris' previous positions, including attorneys general, district attorneys and prosecutors. Social workers, public defenders and agents of the FBI, Secret Service and CIA all also have higher ratings among Democrats.

More Republicans than Democrats rate sheriffs, border patrol agents and police officers positively. Police dogs and police unions are also more popular among Republicans.

During the presidential campaign, Harris touted her record as a prosecutor. But what do Americans think of that performance? Many Democrats think she has been fair as a prosecutor (57%), and about half say she has been tough on crime (48%) when given 10 possible descriptions. Thirty percent of Democrats describe her as ambitious, progressive and compassionate. Republicans, on the other hand, are more likely to describe Harris as ineffective (50%), corrupt (49%) and inconsistent (43%). Only 5% or fewer of Republicans say Harris has been tough on crime, fair and compassionate.

Positions on criminal law policy

To understand what Americans think about Harris' record on criminal justice, we compiled a list of 20 policies she has supported or played a role in implementing. Most of them, we found, are very popular. All but one — abolishing the death penalty — is strongly or somewhat supported by the majority of Americans. Harris' record on the death penalty is mixed: she now supports abolishing it nationally, but as the state's attorney general, she has at times upheld California's death penalty laws. 33% of Americans support abolishing the death penalty and 47% oppose it.

One of Harris's most important programs as San Francisco District Attorney, Back On Track, was a rehabilitation initiative aimed at reducing recidivism rates among first-time nonviolent offenders. Eighty-five percent of Americans support the implementation of job training and rehabilitation programs for people convicted of nonviolent crimes.

In response to protests against police brutality, Harris pushed for law enforcement agencies to disclose data on their officers' use of force as well as statistics on the number of officers injured or killed in the line of duty. This disclosure requirement is supported by 79% and 76% of Americans, respectively.

Many of the policies surveyed have bipartisan support, meaning at least half of both Democrats and Republicans. The largest partisan differences are on the creation of an environmental justice unit (81% of Democrats and 45% of Republicans support it) and the abolition of the death penalty (49% of Democrats and 14% of Republicans support it).

Views on how the justice system responds to crime

A large share of Americans believe the U.S. criminal justice system is too lenient with many types of criminals, particularly those who commit political corruption (72%), child abuse (66%), sexual assault (65%), human trafficking (62%) and domestic violence (59%), among the 30 crimes asked about.

Marijuana use and prostitution are the only two crimes where a majority of Americans believe they are punished too harshly rather than too leniently. Half of Americans say marijuana users are treated too harshly, while only 16 percent say they are treated too leniently. Thirty-four percent think prostitution is dealt with too harshly, while 18 percent think the criminal justice system's response is too lenient.

Views on how the criminal justice system treats people who enter the United States illegally vary across parties, with 77 percent of Republicans and only 16 percent of Democrats saying the response to illegal immigration is too lenient.

In addition, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to believe that the system is too lenient toward drug dealers, burglars, shoplifters, and gang violence.

Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say that the justice system is too lenient for people who commit police violence, hate crimes, and environmental crimes. They are also more likely to say this about tax evasion, embezzlement, and corporate fraud.

Crimes where Democrats and Republicans have similar views on the justice system's response include antitrust violations, war crimes, drunk driving, animal cruelty and sexual assault.

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— Carl Bialik contributed to this article

Check out the results of this YouGov survey

methodology: The poll was conducted online among 2,232 U.S. adults in two separate surveys from July 31 to August 4, 2024, and August 6 to 9, 2024. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted by gender, age, race, education, voter turnout in the 2020 election and the presidential election, base party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets are from the 2019 American Community Survey. Base party identification is the respondent's last response before November 1, 2022, and is weighted by the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democrat, 31% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%.

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