┊ dashed lines mark 1979 Oil shock & inflation peak · 1987 Black Monday crash · 1991 Gulf War recession · 2001 Dot-com bust & 9/11 · 2008 Global financial crisis · 2020 COVID-19 pandemic
Method & caveats. What people believe: GSS variable COURTS, "In general, do you think the courts in this area deal too harshly or not harshly enough with criminals?" Value is the weighted percent answering not harshly enough (code 2 in this file's value labels), weight WTSSPS. The .dta file's embedded value labels show 1=too harshly, 2=not harshly enough, 3=about right. Years with fewer than 200 weighted responses are dropped. Share is weighted target / weighted valid responses ×100, rounded to one decimal; missing responses excluded. 2021 pandemic push-to-web collection; 2022/2024 mixed-mode compared with earlier in-person surveys. Ballot rotation and skipped survey years cause gaps; interpret cross-mode changes cautiously. Breaks: 2021 pandemic push-to-web collection; 2022/2024 mixed-mode compared with earlier in-person surveys. Ballot rotation and skipped survey years cause gaps; interpret cross-mode changes cautiously.
Sources
Every value on this page is read from the publisher below. Current and historical source documents: