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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think villages are safer than towns than cities

122 replies

skybluee · 19/12/2018 13:09

What are your thoughts?

Villages > towns > cities?

Or is it just perception?

Also interested in whether dark is safer than light, or whether it's simply linked to the time of day (6pm vs 9am).

OP posts:
JillScarlet · 21/12/2018 11:34

“so walking about in the dark or daytime you are most likely to get waylaid for a chat rather than a mugging!”

Er, exactly my experience in London. The majority of people in my road know each other, as has been my experience in all 5 homes I have had in London. I don’t go into my nearest shopping street without bumping into several people I know.

And FFS, it is a big deal when people get stabbed, too. Families, young people, the community, schools reeling. School catchments are very tight so there is usually a connection, known at school, or whatever.

We urban dwellers do not become ‘de-sensitised ‘. I find that quite offensive.

But perhaps more of us do put fear and risk into perspective. There are 15 million of us in this city and very very few of us, in that context, are victims of crime.

PoisonousSmurf · 21/12/2018 11:39

There are good and bad people in every community. Cities seem worse because there are more people.
BUT, you could live in the middle of nowhere but have the evil neighbour from hell who makes your life a misery.
Our local town is in the throes of a crime epidemic (caused by a small gang of teenagers). So far they have vandalised the local secondary school, burnt down the sixth form porta cabins and allegedly burnt down six sheds on the allotments!
Or, and in the meantime they continue to terrorise the local community hospital and smashed their windows.
Yeah! Town and village living is not great if you have nasty bored people trapped there!

Oliversmumsarmy · 21/12/2018 12:02

longwayoff it was a tiny village.

Imagine our surprise when we got on the plane to come back from holiday and were given the British newspapers and our little village was headline news

Oliversmumsarmy · 21/12/2018 12:06

and so we feel safer because we like to think no one we know is a criminal

In the village we knew several people who did petty theft regularly.

One business (family lived on site) were robbed at gun point.

Urban legend is the police never caught the criminals but the family tracked them down

BitchQueen90 · 21/12/2018 12:17

I live in a large commuter town. Crime isn't high but isn't low either.

I don't feel unsafe here and I'd honestly hate to live in a village, I'd find it dull as dishwater.

adaline · 21/12/2018 12:19

I live in a small rural town. Not much crime here - mostly speeding and petty theft. I feel perfectly safe.

Chesneyhawkes1 · 21/12/2018 13:03

I live in a village now and feel safe here.

I walk my dogs over the fields in the pitch black. Sometimes forget to lock the patio door, my deliveries are left outside when I'm not home and no one nicks them etc.

I think villages suffer from different types of crime. Less muggings etc but people are more likely to travel and ram raid the local co-op as further from a police station (this happened in my village and first time I saw a police car here in 3 years).

The village fb Page is full of shocking crimes committed i.e someone left tyre marks on a verge 😱

user1471426142 · 21/12/2018 13:15

I (touch wood) have never been a victim of crime and I’ve lived in cities, towns and villages. I feel far safer though in village environment. I think when you’re in a city you become a bit more hardened but also adapt your habits. When I am in London, I carry my bag differently, wouldn’t leave it on a table etc and am much more aware of my surroundings. In a village environment I can be a lot more carefree. In both environments, I’m just getting on with life but I think you can switch off and relax in a village in a way you can’t walking around oxford street.

Dotty1970 · 21/12/2018 13:19

Villages obviously of courseConfused

LakieLady · 21/12/2018 13:37

PIL live in a tiny little village (in a very naice area) and there have been two murders there in the last five or six years

Shock

Bloody hell. I live in a small-ish (pop. 20,000-ish) rural town. There have been 2 murders here in 27 years (in both cases, men murdering the ex that had recently left them Angry).

There's definitely a lot more violent crime in the two big coastal towns in the county, and I don't think it's just because the population is bigger. They're only 4-5 times the size, but both seem to have a murder or two most years and a lot more assaults.

In a couple of areas of town, there are spells where there a lot of burglaries, but it is always the same 2 people responsible and when they're inside, the burglary rate drops to near zero. There has never been a burglary in the area where I live and when the residents' association here tried to start a neighbourhood watch scheme, everyone was like "WTF for?". The only crime I can recall here was when a teen had a load of mates round one weekend when he was home alone, and there was some (relatively minor) criminal damage to cars.

PickAChew · 21/12/2018 13:40

My village was safe, but it was so quiet that I never felt safe walking out after dark. In contrast, I'm quite happy walking around the main public areas of the city I now live in.

Oddsocksandmeatballs · 21/12/2018 13:42

One of my children went to Soham Village College, the other was at St Andrews Primary school where Maxine Carr was the TA in their class. My eldest was good friends with Jess Chapman and Olly Wells (Holly's older brother) and liked Ian Huntley. August 4th 2002 left marks on the community that will never be forgotten.

Eliza9917 · 21/12/2018 13:46

I'm from and grew up in London. Edmonton to be precise. I suppose where I live now is a town. I wouldn't be scared to walk about round here or of any groups of teenagers etc.

I wouldn't walk anywhere in Edmonton at the moment though.

LakieLady · 21/12/2018 13:52

To be honest I find it a bit odd that I ask a very straightforward question about safety and someone has no concept of what I mean. That's fine if it was a genuine question... but is it that difficult to understand the concept of "safer"?

I don't think people are being deliberately obtuse, but it's a very open-ended question. Safer from what, for a start?

Where I live, you probably have a higher than average risk of horse-related injury, because the 2 local racing yards road work the horses round our estate and they often get spooked and damage parked cars. You might be at greater than average risk of food poisoning, because the council are very behind with food hygiene inspections. If you frequently travel along the local bypass, you may run a higher risk of being in a serious accident, because there seems to be one at least every other week.

But we have a low murder rate and a low burglary rate, so in those respects it's safer than other places may be.

LakieLady · 21/12/2018 14:07

I just checked out the crimes recorded in November for where I live now and where I used to live, in Croydon.

The results were 96 recorded crimes in a 1-mile radius of my current addres, and 1,110 within the same radius of my previous one! Bearing in mind that a one mile radius of here covers almost half the town, I'd say it's pretty safe where I live.

You can check yours out here www.crime-statistics.co.uk/postcode

Bear2014 · 21/12/2018 14:15

Definitely depends on perception. We live in London and in 15 years have never been a victim of even minor crime. We get public transport or walk everywhere which is by far the safest way to go. And we have a world class teaching hospital 1 mile away. My biggest concern is actually air pollution for the kids but we're right by the park and tge school is tucked away a bit.

In my 6th form (small rural town) someone had a bad car crash nearly every year. My parents have been burgled and a friend was attacked when walking home in her village.

Magissa · 21/12/2018 14:19

I live in London Zone 1 and I 100% feel safer than when I lived in a suburb. There are always people about day and night, police patrol the area, I live in a flat so only one entrance to our house therefore more difficult for burglers than a semi in a quiet street. Luckily my neighbours are all great. In my old house we lived next door to an aggressive family where DV happened weekly. I was constantly anxious. I guess there are bad places everywhere and it is all down to the people rather than the place but again, London is great.

LoisWilkerson1 · 21/12/2018 14:19

Didn't mean to offend jillscarlett I don't mean urban dwellers don't care if someone gets murdered just that some might see it as part of life in a city.

kalinkafoxtrot45 · 21/12/2018 14:22

The roughest place I ever lived was a small isolated town in Scotland. Most crimes weren’t ever reported. So glad to move away from there to a city where I felt much safer.

Oliversmumsarmy · 22/12/2018 04:59

Within 1 mile of my area. About 3 miles from Zone 6.

17 crimes but only 1 in my area. We are sort off the beaten track. It was someone who started a fire and it got out of hand so they ran away.

PenelopeFlintstone · 22/12/2018 05:08

I live in a village. There was a murder in the 1920s. In 15 years, only two cars have been stolen - in both cases by criminals from other towns ditching their cars and taking a car from the village to be undetected for longer. Never a burglary. Oh, once, someone stole a load of chainsaws from around the place. A group drove out to the thief's place, which was his parent's farm on the outskirts, and got them all back.

WereYouHareWhenIWasFox · 22/12/2018 05:09

I have always felt safer in cities, where there is life and other people, you know safety in numbers kind of thing. People in villages often seem a little odd, iykwim.

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