People are not professionals and are not data. People will be influenced by their own prejudices, by misinformation and “want ti to be so,” and by the simple random chance of who and what they encounter on any given day.

Of course we all want to get the “feel” of a neighborhood and be comfortable in our gut. Such attempts should be backed by sober, objective analysis of the facts and data, not the slippery slopes of subjective experience.

Best, Adam.

Note that crime generally increases and decreases with similar trend lines in western industrialized countries thus there seem to be universal forces at work as to how people define illegal acts such as drug use and violence (especially towards women). We all seem to come to conclusions as to what we will tolerate.
Those plus technologies that change the way we live (i.e., proliferation of the use of cell phones) seem to have impacts regardless as to where we live.

Yes, I understand that this is an inadequate answer. I wish we could do beter.

Best, Adam.