How dangerous are our streets

[savory]

From time to time, there is a forum conversation about safety of neighborhoods and streets. For the most part, my takeaway has been most people do not feel where they live is unsafe. But, when they consider advice to others, it feels that the area outside of home is unsafe.

I came across this USA by State study which discusses attitudes from people in each state about their feeling of personal safety (it seems similar to many of the concerns expressed by forum members.) And, then the study compares the actual reporting by local police departments of various crime categories that had been submitted to the FBI for the updating of the Uniform Crime Report. In my review, the concern vs the actual incidence do not seem to line up.

My takeaway is that crime rates are fairly low in general. For example, violent crime rates are about 4 per 1,000 people, on average, nationally.

Having said that, while only 4 people are directly impacted in this example, there are many more that learned about an event directly or in the media. This likely made people feel that it could have been them. I would surmise, this could drive the perception of crime to be much larger than it is.

I could not find a link that provides the entire study. Here is a link to WI https://www.safewise.com/blog/safest-cities-wisconsin/ . If you click this link, you will find some more information. And, on next link, you can also click news for even more information. https://www.safewise.com/blog/category/news/ There is lots of info if you want to navigate,

 

[Teacher Terry]

I spent half of my life in Wisconsin with most of it in Kenosha which is fairly safe. When I lived in Milwaukee there were neighborhoods that weren’t safe to live in and not even safe to be in during the day. It’s not surprising that the safest cities are small towns.

 

[braumeister]

OP, I don't see what your point is.
Can you explain just what you're asking?

 

[freedomatlast]

By State seems meaningless. Each state has affluent safe areas with low crime rate and other areas that are slums where you don't want to be any time of the day or night if you value your life.

 

[Gumby]

That site seems like nothing more than a vehicle for presenting home security system ads. And, quite frankly, I don't care about people's feelings. I care about the actual facts.

 

[USGrant1962]

Around 2014 a decades-long decline in crime rates stopped and an upward trend began (or flat for some categories but no longer declining). I suspect the trend is what people are noticing.

 

[Aerides]

The link is a commercial site selling security, not a news site at all.

I believe most people watch the news feeds that align with their priors. Ah yes, we say, thought as much, and nod, wisely.

And most "oh the crime" fretting is based on sites that feed this to their viewers for ratings. I could not care less what the crime rate is in a large metro 4 states away from me.

I do know that murder rates are down quite a bit in almost all major areas. By and large most crime data is far improved over the recent decades.

 

[badatmath]

Safe from what? Murder? Robbery? Traffic?

I live in a place where pedestrians/bicyclists are hit by cars on the regular. . .

It isn't that uncommon to hear of shootings and a good amount of property crime takes place here.

Yes, I live in a big city.

 

[jollystomper]

Crime incidents tend to be very local. In densely populated cities you can have almost zero crime in one area and a high crime area just a few miles away. As related to the other thread about safe traveling, the close-in locale where you will be visiting or looking to live is what one should consider regarding personal safety. Crime will always be high on the list of "if it bleeds, it leads" news and social media.

Overall, reported crimes are down, though violent crime has leveled off, and in 2022 the property crime rate did tick up a bit

Statistics, with sources:

U.S. violent crime reported 1990-2022:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/191129/reported-violent-crime-in-the-us-since-1990/

U.S. property crime reported 1990-2022:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/191208/reported-cases-of-property-crime-in-the-us-since-1990/

 

[MC Rider]

It's safe here as long as you do not believe the Facedork posts about hoards of loose felonius dogs running amuck. Oh, and the tweakers.

 

[Sunset]

I think the more informed we are by media (news, internet, radio) the more we hear of bad things like robbery , murder , shootings.
After all "If it bleeds, it leads" in the news.

This I think makes us believe these things are more prevalent near us than they are really.
However, it acts as a reminder of what could happen, and if I get shot in a robbery, or attacked by a bad owners pit-bull dog(s) it's a pretty big deal and I might die. So I think it affects my behavior, I don't go for walks at night for example, and I carefully look at people walking their dog in the distance.

Back when I was a kid, pedophiles were not talked about. Didn't hear stuff on the news.
Now I see the occasional news item of some school teacher being a pedophile , and over the years some more, pretty soon it's easy to believe there is a pedophile in every school.

On the other hand, I had a sprinkler stolen off my lawn.
I didn't report it. I bet many minor crimes people don't report it. So those are under-reported.
Now I don't leave my sprinkler out or anything else that I don't want stolen.

 

[badatmath]

I'd say while I have lived on this street ~ 20 years at least 1/3 of the houses have been broken into. No one hurt that I am aware of and nothing of terribly great value taken. Often the residents thought they knew the culprit. Sometimes it was thought to be a friend the kids had brought home who saw something and returned later for it.

Packages go missing after delivery sometimes though I have only personally lost 1.

Some coworkers were robbed as well and they did not live near by. One had a car stolen from his driveway.

 

[savory]

OP, I don't see what your point is.
Can you explain just what you're asking?

I think we make judgements about crime and safety that are mostly based on prejudicial views. Not just racial but income and other related things. Almost always without real facts or knowledge. It is a prejudice we do not see in ourselves.

I was hoping it might lead to a discussion of views on crime and how the “statistics” we use to rationalize our POV about the amount of crime and location could be challenged. That this knowledge would allow us to see our world in a different way. But, based on the responses, that clearly didn’t happen.

I’m reminded of an old Godfrey Cambridge joke that I think relates to this thought. “A family is driving back to their old neighborhood to visit friends. When they pass the key dividing street of white vs black areas, Dad turns to the family and says, ‘lock your doors, colored people live here’. Cambridge says “what is this man talking about? Doesn’t he remember he use to be colored”. Perspective can be everything.

 

[MichaelB]

Thanks for an interesting discussion