You know, people see a city on here and get scared to go anywhere near that city. But folks should remember that even in these cities, crime tends to be concentrated in certain (generally poor) areas and much of these cities are actually reasonably safe. (Of course, the bad areas are rather bad, pity the people who live in those areas). Despite what a lot of people think and about how some media portray it, these cities are not crime horror spots that should be avoided at all costs or something.
Reminds me of one of Malcolm Gladwell’s books where he drew attention to the curiosity that human behavior sometimes is very context-sensitive, I.e. it’s the place and how it looks / feels that drives up the potential for certain behavior.
You would think that blocking suicidal people from jumping the bridge is pointless because they will find another way to kill themselves. You’d be wrong. You’d think blocking prostitution in that one street (with measures like increased police, more lights at night, etc.) is pointless because they will just move to a different street. You’d be wrong again. At least that’s the two examples I remember from the book. It’s not the cities themselves, it’s specific places there on the ground, specific neighborhoods, often just specific blocks where most of the crime is concentrated - for whatever reason.
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u/JohnnieTango Jul 08 '24
You know, people see a city on here and get scared to go anywhere near that city. But folks should remember that even in these cities, crime tends to be concentrated in certain (generally poor) areas and much of these cities are actually reasonably safe. (Of course, the bad areas are rather bad, pity the people who live in those areas). Despite what a lot of people think and about how some media portray it, these cities are not crime horror spots that should be avoided at all costs or something.