Crime

I’m constantly amazed at how good and well-behaved most people are most of the time. Of course, I live in a good area in a very wealthy society. What amazes me even more is how many of my peers think our lives are horribly crime-infested.

Mostly, I guess, it’s the “media.” News and entertainments about horrible crimes are a lot more interesting than those discussing hobbies or good food. But the fact is that in this place, at this time, most violent crime involves fights between people who know each other pretty well. Most property crime is reimbursed by insurance and in any case rarely threatens someone’s health and well-being. I remember too well the bad old days when we all carried cash, and a street mugging (violent or not) could take a week or more of earnings and leave us unable to pay bills or even to eat in the days before credit cards. 

Nevertheless, folks seem to think the worst. 

People are much more likely to be involved in traffic accidents than to be affected by serious crime. “Abducted children” are usually involved in custodial arguments or are running away. Folks almost never encounter violent “illegal” immigrants. But the fears of all kinds of suburban and urban myths multiply. 

It’s one of the penalties we pay for partially inhabiting a distorted virtual reality on the internet where we are surrounded by more horrors than miracles all the time. The opposite, actually, of real life