To think it is naive to think there is no knife crime near us because it is a "nice" area?

[hidinginthenightgarden]

I was speaking to someone today who said they didn't understand why people didn't let their kids (as young as 6/7) play on the streets these days. Our housing estate is new build and huge (800 houses) and like a warren. The main reason my son isn't allowed to play out is that I'd never bloody find him if I needed him to come home early.
I sugested that the current issue with teen behaviour and knife crime may have an effect but he said "no, not around this estate". I was a bit surprised he thought like this and told him so.
An expensive area is no less likely to have teenagers causing trouble and its not a gated community so nothing is stopping people coming into the estate from other areas. There are a few local schools within 10 -15 minutes so kids could come to the estate with friends even if those living on the estate were somehow immune to the problems other areas may have.
Whilst our city is one with a low crime rate and we don't appear to have gangs of youths hanging round the streets, is it naive of them to think it couldn't possible happen on our estate just because it is nice?

Your arguments against it are almost as silly as their arguments for it (playing out).
You limit their roaming areas based on age and maturity so you should always know where they will be.
Teen behaviour should have no bearing on younger kids playing out? They should be outside!

But there is crime and knife crime almost anywhere and it's daft to think otherwise. I used to live in a naice small quiet village where someone was stabbed in the middle of the day.

It feels very safe but even the postman gets the adresses wrong so how the hell would I find my kid if he wandered off into an area of the estate I was unfamiliar with?

6 is way to young to be unsupervised.

You can check your area's crime rates and types online on your local force's website. I do live in a very nice rural village with a wide range of housing, including council and housing association as well as very expensive houses and luckily nowhere near the south of England. I checked before I moved here. The most complaints the police get are speeding and noisy parties, though we did have one daytime burglary last month - shock as it was so unusual. Have a look at what is prevalent in your area rather than assume.

@whiteroseredrose
Very nearby and a truly awful story.

I personally would be okay with my 7 year old playing on the park opposite our house unsupervised as I can see it from the kitchen. He would have to cross a road though to come home and DH isn't comfortable with this even though it isn't a busy one.

I personally would be okay with my 7 year old playing on the park opposite our house unsupervised as I can see it from the kitchen.

Really?

An expensive area is less likely to have teenagers causing trouble. Obviously.

It can happen anywhere and to anyone but mostly at the moment its black boys in major cities.

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/live-yousef-makki-trial-sentencing-16642456

Even really nice areas can have crime. Where I grew up there was a spate of rapes in a very very nice part of town (average house price a million, no social housing etc). They eventually caught the man (who came from a different part of town and chose the nice area because of its large parks and the confidence with which young women walked there alone at might).

It does statistically correlate though, and yes it statistically correlate along racial lines.

But as this discussion is on MN it won't get anywhere other than blaming the tories as being critical thinking.

You can just look it up: www.police.uk/search/

Where I live there were zero possession of weapon crimes in the last recorded month.

Yes its very naive to think because you live in a nice area there is no crime.

@MrsJoshNavidi

We have very little crime at all, let alone knife crime. North Wiltshire - one of the lowest crime rates in the country.
It's predominantly a white, middle class, relatively affluent county.
Coincidence? I don't think so.

Your comment is hideous on so many levels.

BackforGood I don't think it is evenly distrubuted at all. I am saying that it can still occur in a nice area. That just because it doesn't appear to have a gang culture or similar, that doesn't mean there is no knife crime here at all.

You can never say no chance of knife crime, but this is about likelihood - a 'risk assessment' if you like. That is area related.

Tokenismjest - I thought the same.

Backforgood my post was specifically based on someone saying there is NO crime though. Not what the likelihood of crime is.

is it naive of them to think it couldn't possible happen on our estate just because it is nice?
This is the bit I am referring to @backforgood. I realise I use the work likely earlier in the post but this guy was saying there is no knife crime in our area.

Your post is odd really. Why would you want a belief that there is knife crime everywhere confirmed?
Anything at all COULD happen. Tigers, bears etc. But what's the point of dwelling on it?

We have very little crime at all, let alone knife crime. North Wiltshire - one of the lowest crime rates in the country.

Thats not what it says here..

www.police.uk/wiltshire/Wiltshire%20North/crime/

Chippenham looks rough.

www.ukcrimestats.com/Constituencies/

www.police.uk/wiltshire/Wiltshire%20North/performance/compare-your-area/

Low crime in north Wiltshire. It needs to be calculated per number of people to be more meaningful. Also allowances for big shopping areas or very touristy places.

@titchy I let mine play outside unsupervised, not as far as the park because it's a busy road where we live but if it was a quiet road it would be fine.

I was replying to what you said here

I sugested that the current issue with teen behaviour and knife crime may have an effect but he said "no, not around this estate". I was a bit surprised he thought like this and told him so.
An expensive area is no less likely to have teenagers causing trouble

Obviously, no-one can ever say there is no crime, but your question was about knife crime and if it was something you should be taking into account, in deciding when to let your 6 or 7 yr old play out.

Awful things do happen, astonishingly rarely, in the nicest of places, and sometime in completely random places, but, the likelihood of your dcs' being affected by knife crime, is definitely related to postcode.

Chippenham looks rough.