oxford road? not really aware of what its like to live there, my uncle lived in belmont road off the oxford road for years and never had any trouble, he moved when his fmaily outgrew the small terraced house they lived in and he wanted off road parking.
the oxford road is busy, especially throughout the day, but the advantage is you have most shops you need wan ton your doorstep, butchers, greengrocers, newsagents, ethnic shops, charity shops and even a tattooists! unfortuntley(deoends on your outlook on life) there are one or two 'saunas' on the ocford road, but apparently they are well policed and no trouble has been reported in the local papers, if anything i think it has stopped the red light traffic that used to occur there.
i think if you have ived somewhere like london it won't comea s much of a shock to you as it is readings most culturally diverse areas (lots of the shops are halal, carribbean etc), but if you were coming form some sleepy little village then it would be a major shock to the system. the range of people living there goes to show by lidl at one end and waitrose at the other.
as a student midwife i have done loads of home visits in the oxford road area and they have all been to nice 'normal' people, i'm sure there are plenty of 'wrong uns' about too but you get them everywhere.
anything specific you want to know i will see if i cam find out for you.