So, I’ve never been to States but this one bothers me because I would like to live here. I like big cities. The ones with 5+ mln people living. It creates more opportunities, more interesting people, etc, etc.
I hear a lot of bad things about american cities. That there’s a lot of crime, even in NYC which is one of the safest big cities in America. Can you explain that to me? Here in Poland I could walk in the night and the probabilty of something happeining to me would be low.
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I would go to a local subreddit or search around online for the bad areas. It’s fairly common for crime to be extremely localized. Most cities around the world have safe and not so safe areas.
The vast majority of crime is among people who are committing crimes. If you don’t join a street gang or engage in trafficking narcotics the odds of being a victim of violent crime are almost zero.
Think about it this way: New York is one of the wealthiest cities in the world. If it were very dangerous, do you think those people, who could easily live anywhere they chose, would stay?
No, turn off Fox News and America Bad media and enjoy a visit sometime
At worst parts of cities will have problems.
No, they aren’t. Most violent crime is localized to certain areas that are easy to avoid.
They’re very dangerous in certain areas and very safe in other areas it’s just a matter of knowing where to go and where not to go.
Obviously compared to Poland where guns aren’t common homicide rate is going to be much higher in the USA
It’s mostly confined to areas of drug use and poverty. I’m sure there are neighborhoods in Krakow you wouldn’t feel safe in at night.
As a tourist or non destitute resident, the US is pretty safe. There are mass shootings, unfortunately. Those are like lightning strikes, impossible to predict.
nah
Most crime is from a known adversary. Like rival gang members, mouthing off to someone who looks deranged, engaging in road rage with another motorist, engaging with known drug dealers, etc.
I’ve lived in seven different major metropolitan areas in the US. It depends largely on where you live in the city. In my experience, there are parts of the city that are known for crime and parts that are typically very safe.
No I live in a city that is much smaller than NewYork, but I visit NYC a couple times a year because I like it there. I ride the subway and I walk the streets after midnight. Not alone, but I’ve never felt unsafe. Yes, there is random violence, but there are millions of people there. The chances of you being a victim are almost zero.
Been to most of them, died most times I went.
I live in downtown Atlanta. Crime has been on the rise every year for as long as I can remember. I still feel quite safe going for walks/runs at 3 in the morning, and even encounter plenty of others doing the same.
I used to live in one of the ghettos here. While I wouldn’t recommend midnight walks in that area, I found that connecting with your neighbors and the community often made you less likely to be the target of a crime. Even got invited to the barbecue once.
I have either lived or worked in NYC for a very, very long time. I’ve never had a problem.
That’s not to say that there’s no crime, of course there is. But it’s not like you’re automatically going to be stabbed any time you walk down the street.
Not at all. The big American cities are just as safe as the big European cities and safer than cities in many other parts of the world. Certainly as a visitor, you aren’t going to be in the “bad neighborhoods” of American cities just like you wouldn’t go to rough London or Paris neighborhoods
[here’s the 15 most dangerous cities in the US](https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2023/01/31/report-ranks-americas-15-safest-and-most-dangerous-cities-for-2023/?sh=670bec30309a)
1) St. Louis, Missouri
2) Birmingham, Alabama
3) Baltimore, Maryland
4) Memphis, Tennessee
5) Detroit, Michigan
6) Cleveland, Ohio
7) New Orleans, Louisiana
8) Shreveport, Louisiana
9) Baton Rouge, Louisiana
10) Little Rock, Arkansas
11) Oakland, California
12) Milwaukee, Wisconsin
13) Kansas City, Missouri
14) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
15) Richmond, Virginia
This is according to FBI crime statistics and factors both violent crime and property crime. Notice how there aren’t many big cities ranking top 15
Do you live in a big city in Poland, with 5+ million people? The more people you have, the more you’re going to have of anything, including crime.
US cities have more violent crime than cities in Poland or most of Europe. Not gonna sugarcoat that. But like a lot of cities in the world the crime tends to be concentrated in certain places, and your chances of actually being a victim of crime is very low if you don’t go to those places. It’s not something you should let stop you from moving to the US or visiting.
Your odds of being a victim of random violent crime in the US is very low. The only one I can think of that you hear even remotely commonly is from mentally ill people on the streets.
Muggings happen, but they’re rare. I have a 5 figure watch collection, I have them insured but generally don’t worry about wearing them unless I’m going to a very poor area.
The kidnapping for ransom industry that’s absolutely huge just across the border in Mexico is nonexistent here-the FBI is EXTREMELY good at solving kidnapping for ransom.
Break ins to homes happen, but generally speaking they want to do it when no one is home. The stereotypical home invasion at night when everyone is asleep doesn’t happen, it’s more so someone who looks like they have some reason to be there (i.e. gardener) goes around the back at 2PM.
Many cities have homeless camps that I would avoid, but even in the deep hood you can generally pass through just fine.
That said, random violent crime is not UNHEARD of, but it’s pretty rare. I know exactly 2 people who were ever a victim of random violent crime, and both were from mentally ill people.
Many of the extremely dangerous cities (Detroit, Baltimore, etc.) have large gang presences. But if you’re not involved, and you’re not a drug addict yourself, they will generally leave you alone. And even then, one of the wealthiest guys I know lives in a suburb of Baltimore
Don’t attract crime and you won’t be the victim of a crime. As long as you stay out of very bad areas (which are few and far between) and don’t actively interact with criminals, you are very unlikely to be the victim of a crime.
Also, it’s worth noting that there is only one city in the United States that fits your 5,000,000+ population requirement: New York. Unless you’re referring to the metro area populations, in which case there are 10.
If you look at the list of the cities with the highest rate of violent crimes most of them are medium size cities. The most populous cities of NYC and LA are not on the list. Even San Fransisco, a city that has become internationally famous for worsening public safety, isn’t on the list.
Crime isn’t a daily reality for most people in the US. You can walk around at night in most places without worrying about anything. There are a lot of people who are needlessly paranoid and a lot of money to be made in the media by covering crime stories for people in the suburbs.
NO— The media has overhyped danger to the point of parody. You would think walking in NYC or Chicago you’d get mowed down by a tommy gun.
Not exactly what you asked but isn’t there a lot of hate crime in Poland, especially against the LGBTQA community?
It’s greatly overplayed by conservative politicians and Fox News.
No, but dangerous cities are a common trope in American culture. I’m raising my family in Philadelphia, and crime varies greatly by neighborhood. There are neighborhoods that suffer from high crime rates, and I don’t want to be dismissive of that or downplay its effect on the people who live there, but this type of crime is concentrated and not widespread throughout the city. For the record, I worked in such a neighborhood for years and never felt unsafe although I wasn’t there at night.
Statistically, cities are often safer- the risk of being the victim of a crime in the city is lower than the risk of car accidents, gun deaths, and the consequences of living further from adequate healthcare in suburban and rural areas.
New York City in particular is very safe and New Yorkers actually have a longer life expectancy than other areas of the country.
Its wildly overrated.
Our cities were dangerous 30 years ago but they’re not really very dangerous anymore. They have high crime rates but the deal with that is that you have to go looking for the crime to find it. Aka buying drugs, sex etc.
I live in a city that has a terrible reputation for crime but I have never once felt scared in it. I even worked extensively in the poor dangerous parts of the city and never once felt scared or threatened.
I mean I do have to worry about locking my bike, And I don’t leave my laptop in my car but have the same problem in Europe.
Odd coincidence, when I saw this thread there were 187 replies, and 187 is a police radio code for homicide.
Just depends on where in a particular city you are as to how dangerous it is.
Parts of cities are dangerous. Some neighborhoods within very safe cities are off the charts for murder or violent crimes, theft- this is pretty much the case in NYC if you go to places like the South Bronx or Inwood. The rest of the city is fine though. Like yes, I’ve been jumped and been held at knifepoint a few times in NYC and Boston, which are both overall very safe cities. Really was because of the neighborhoods I happened to be in at the time. In my day to day life, I can walk around at 2 AM here without any concerns
Criminologist here
It really varies a lot. New Orleans and St Louis and some other cities consistently rank among the top 20 deadliest cities in the world, alongside Caracas, Tijuana, and Karachi. Then many cities have homicide rates below 5 per 100k, which is near most European cities.
It also varies a lot neighborhood to neighborhood.
I will say that there is a degree of sketchiness that many americans are used to which would shock a lot of people from safer countries. Even besides gang members and shootings, there’s a *lot* more drug addicts and homeless in most American cities, even in safer parts. [Some neighborhoods, even in safer cities, look like this.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOBoDT-3oM0) Others are very nice and safe. Someone from Japan or Poland will be taken aback at this stuff, but sketchiness doesn’t always translate directly to actual danger in 99% of cases.
Your actual chance of being a victim of a crime is very low if you aren’t going to shitty areas.
> I hear a lot of bad things about american cities. That there’s a lot of crime, even in NYC which is one of the safest big cities in America.
It’s mostly just Republicans in the US inventing nonsense ammunition for their culture war.
They don’t want to talk about things like drug use rates, teen pregnancy rates, poverty statistics, etc, so they try to create the vague sense of cities being unsafe for unstated reasons. Mainly by just repeating the same lies often enough.
It depends?
I’ve lived in San Francisco as a young 20s woman and as long as I avoid being blackout drunk in certain areas (that are well known for being more dangerous), I feel fine.
I’ve never been to Poland, and I’ll admit to feeling safer (anecdotally) in major European cities, I’ve never been shy about being a young solo female in major American cities as long as I’ve ID’d certain areas.
And that’s only really needed if I’m getting drunk. If I’m not getting drunk, I have felt confident in my abilities to exist in any major American city/neighbourhood WITHOUT having a firearm.
You’ll be okay. If you’re gonna drink, google it/ask around.
Situational awareness is everything. Most crime in cities is either personal or opportunistic.
I spent a week in the South Bronx, only white person on the street (latino or black people mainly) but everyone was smiles and outgoing. South Bronx is considered a high crime area and there were cops responding to calls on our street all day and night, but it was never for something happening out on the street. Always a burglary of a bordega or some apartment matter. I didn’t go out at night though.
Europe is the safest continent, North America is the second safes. It’s all relative.
I feel very safe living in nyc
In America anybody can own guns.
There are more guns than people.
That doesn’t help the crime rate.
Not as bad as the news portrays. Lots of very safe areas and some concentrated unsafe areas. It’s fine to live in a big US city just don’t move to a bad neighborhood.
If your rent is high, you’re probably in a safe area.