I moved from the suburbs to the city. My suburban friends stop visiting. When I asked why, they were worried about crime. So, my volunteer project became to learn about crime in general and mostly in my neighborhood.
I reached out to the local police data that is provided to the FBI. I segmented 5 years of data from my 1x2 miles neighborhood and analyzed the reported crime. I also reached out to the local university, police department, and secondary research.
I learned that crime was different by area and time of day/night was very important. There were few crimes for example where a gun would have been useful, unless you want to shot a home invader who did not expect you at home. There is nothing in the literature or local stories from my old neighborhood that suggested a firearm would have been useful or worth the possible risk of even hurting a person. Not that I was looking to make that conclusion, but the OP question made me think about it.
Some interesting learning is corner houses are burgled more than other homes. Students/others who come home from bars late at night are robbed more than others. Drug sales on your block are encouraged by easy in/out, so creating a cul-de-dac or difficult 'escape' has been a positive approach used in many neighborhoods. Police can tell you the popular types of cars being stolen in your area. If you own one, you can take more care. I concluded that neighborhood watch is not effective as a crime prevention program. Police simply need a tool to make citizens feel they are doing something. Crime is different by area even in a 1x2 mile area.
If you really want the data, look to see if the FBI data submitted by your police department is available. That will tell you a lot.
The bottom line for me is my neighbors felt pretty safe. They did take more precautions but that in my opinion was based on density, more people/more crime. We did not have a problem for the few years we ended up living there. We did know people who were affected by crime. But typically a single incident. I can think of a couple of things that have happen to me over the years as well in the 'safe' neighborhoods.
I reached out to the local police data that is provided to the FBI. I segmented 5 years of data from my 1x2 miles neighborhood and analyzed the reported crime. I also reached out to the local university, police department, and secondary research.
I learned that crime was different by area and time of day/night was very important. There were few crimes for example where a gun would have been useful, unless you want to shot a home invader who did not expect you at home. There is nothing in the literature or local stories from my old neighborhood that suggested a firearm would have been useful or worth the possible risk of even hurting a person. Not that I was looking to make that conclusion, but the OP question made me think about it.
Some interesting learning is corner houses are burgled more than other homes. Students/others who come home from bars late at night are robbed more than others. Drug sales on your block are encouraged by easy in/out, so creating a cul-de-dac or difficult 'escape' has been a positive approach used in many neighborhoods. Police can tell you the popular types of cars being stolen in your area. If you own one, you can take more care. I concluded that neighborhood watch is not effective as a crime prevention program. Police simply need a tool to make citizens feel they are doing something. Crime is different by area even in a 1x2 mile area.
If you really want the data, look to see if the FBI data submitted by your police department is available. That will tell you a lot.
The bottom line for me is my neighbors felt pretty safe. They did take more precautions but that in my opinion was based on density, more people/more crime. We did not have a problem for the few years we ended up living there. We did know people who were affected by crime. But typically a single incident. I can think of a couple of things that have happen to me over the years as well in the 'safe' neighborhoods.
