Gallup recently shared a poll that revealed Americans’ trust in the media has hit another “record low.” But as new reports and statistics emerge, perhaps it’s not hard to see why — especially when the FBI is caught revising data that shows entirely different statistics related to levels of violent crime.

For the last couple of years, there’s been a growing dispute between those who claim there’s been an increase of crime under the Biden-Harris administration and those who suggest otherwise. In fact, last year, the FBI released its 2022 annual crime in the nation data, which reported a 2.1% decrease in violent crime in comparison to the previous year. As Fox News stated, “The data was lauded by Democrats and the media as part of a turning point for crime woes in the U.S., following the crime wave of 2020, when defund-the-police protests and riots swept the nation and the pandemic’s stay-at-home orders upended daily life.”

Additionally, as expressed by John Lott, founder and president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, for the last year, “[W]e were having headlines, news articles after news articles saying, ‘Violent crime is falling, people mistakenly or erroneously believe that it’s increasing.’” Even during the presidential debate between Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, debate moderator David Muir fact-checked Trump after he acknowledged an increase in crime by saying, “The FBI says overall, violent crime is actually coming down in this country.”

However, after months of Americans being told they’re wrong to believe crime has increased, the FBI “quietly” revised the 2022 data last month only to uncover the fact that rather than crime decreasing by 2.1% under the Biden-Harris administration, it’s increased by 4.5% in 2022 alone. “That’s a 6.6 percentage point change there,” Lott emphasized. People have been “relying on this data,” he continued. “But you don’t see any corrections in the news.” No one is “saying, ‘Oops, the FBI data that we relied on was wrong — that rather than a drop, there was actually an increase that had occurred.”

To further detail the changes made by the FBI, Fox News noted that “the data reflects a net increase of 80,029 violent crimes in 2022 over 2021 … [with] an additional 1,699 murders, 7,780 rapes, 33,459 robberies and 37,091 aggravated assaults that year” than what was originally documented.

Concerning the underlying message behind these corrected statistics, Family Research Council’s Joseph Backholm shared with The Washington Stand, “We have to be careful about inferring motive because incompetence often explains what we attribute to malice.” Even so, he added, “There was a clear motive for the FBI to want to understate violent crime statistics.”

According to Backholm, it hasn’t been objectively proven that “the FBI intentionally misrepresented the data to give cover to political leaders who are being accused of letting the world become more dangerous.” However, “[W]e understand why they would, and we’ve seen the government mislead the public enough times that skepticism has been earned.” Especially with the presidential election around the corner, “The Left has been criticized for policies that make the country less safe,” Backholm added, and “it’s difficult to get elected if the public believes you make their lives more dangerous.” As he went on to suggest, “[A]nyone who wants progressives to win elections, as most legacy media does, would have a reason to hide data that suggests there is more crime.”

Beyond the practical side of the newfound data, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and Louisiana’s Dean of Students and Head Football Coach at Istrouma High School Sid Edwards discussed the spiritual aspect of crime during Thursday’s episode of “Washington Watch.” As Perkins said, “We look at the statistics, the numbers,” and we often forget that “behind every number is a face” — a real person who was affected by or lost their life due to criminal acts. Edwards happens to be painfully aware of this reality.

In January of this year, the coach lost one of his players due to gang violence that spiked in their city of Baton Rouge. Since then, other students’ lives have been taken as well. “[I]t’s mind-boggling,” Edwards shook his head, “that our youth have this to deal with daily.” Perkins added that it points to the bigger picture of how “more and more Americans are becoming victims of crime, or family members are becoming victims of crime, or they’re seeing it” all around them.

What’s truly eye-opening, as Edwards went on to say, is how “desensitized” people have become to the increasingly dangerous environments they find themselves in. It’s as if “it’s become a part of the culture,” Perkins interjected. Not to mention the fact that “a lot of people see the problems, but they don’t do anything about it,” he added. “[W]e don’t need any more commentators. We don’t need any more critics. We actually need people on the field to make a difference.”

According to Edwards, there needs to be “a multi-layered approach” to combatting crime. For instance, “It starts certainly with the breakdown of the family,” which is something that “the local churches [and] the pastors” can “play a huge role in” addressing. But ultimately, there are “many layers to crime,” he contended, “and it’s coming up with a plan and then making a plan work. … And then if [they] don’t work, we fix it, and we know what to do the next time.” It’s important for the average American citizen to take a stand, Edwards argued, because it shouldn’t be left entirely to the police to uphold a standard of accountability.

In fact, as Perkins noted, “crime is a symptom” of an underlying problem, “not the cause.” And that’s what “we’re seeing all across our nation [and] in society as a whole.” Edwards highlighted the fact that part of that deeper cause is that many criminals act out of experienced “hopelessness and trauma.” But “where do we go for hope?” he asked. “Our Lord.”

Edwards explained that there’s an issue with trust in our culture at the moment. Especially among young people, there are trust issues with churches, law enforcement, and government. So, he insisted, to fix this is a matter of “opening that door and getting inside and getting into the heart and soul of these people. It’s relationship.” This is why “we need churches,” Perkins noted. Ultimately, “pastors are the leaders of churches to engage in the community and build relationships with elected leaders, with community leaders” and others in the surrounding area.

“There really needs to be more of the sit down and have a cup of coffee, work alongside one another to address community issues,” Perkins concluded, rather than the “finger-pointing and the criticism that often comes in these local arenas.”