Fear of the Unfamiliar

[Gato Montés]

not really relevant for the purpose of this thread

and what purpose would that be exactly, I'm still kinda confused.

I grew up with a foot in each world, and my father was a state trooper, and I'm suspicious of everybody.

Und wir haben die winner!!!

 

[ldhulk]

I don't know if the kid who grows up in more affluent surroundings is more moral than his ghetto counterpart, but he is apt to be more careful, or maybe smarter. Instead of dumb crimes like armed robbery which carry heavy penalties and risk of getting shot, he's more likely to try embezzlemnt or fraud, which pay better and bring lighter punishment if caught....or if he's really ambitious, run for Congress. The rural loser who is mentally challenged will probably be a meth cooker or sneak thief.

 

[MachIVshooter]

and what purpose would that be exactly, I'm still kinda confused

The premise of the OP is an assertion that city people are timorous in a rural or woods setting, with the reverse holding true for country folk, because of unfamiliarity. There is credence to this.

However, the fact that areas with dense populations are more dangerous than sparsly populated ones, even broken down on a per-capita basis, is also true.

What causes a greater percentage of people in urban areas to be criminals doesn't really matter. The only point is that a country person visiting the city has better reason to be trepid than the city guy in the sticks. A criminal's lack of morality and the reasons for it have no bearing on the danger he/she presents to his/her victim.

My county has 24,000 residents with a violent crime rate of 0.3-0.6 per 1000 people, depending on the year (That's literally 8-17 violent crimes per year). They are almost exclusively assault. Rape, murder, manslaughter columns read 0 year after year. There is an occasional robbery here and there.

Denver has 600,000 residents with a violent crime rate of 3.54 per 1000 people.

We can speculate all day long about what has made so many more people in Denver immoral enough to commit a crime, but it doesn't change the fact that your're between 6 and 12 times as likely to be a victim of violent crime there than here. And that's just the statistic of all violent crime; Now consider that the nature of them. Most of those "assualts" are high school fist fights, with a few bar fights. If you aren't a student and stay out of the few bars, you're chances of being a victim are virtually nil.

As for the danger presented by animals out here in the "wild"? Unless you jump the fence into a bull pen and poke him or don't heed a rattler's warning, you're quite safe. There has never been a fatal animal attack here, and the worst injuries sustained was a lady who lost an arm to a tiger in a cage. Should've kept her arm out of there. It's not like there are things with long fangs and an appetite for human blood running rampant.

 

[shiftyer1]

I grew up in a rural community of medium size in Minnesota, dad always carried his wallet in his back pocket EXCEPT when we went to Minneapolis/St. Paul. He would move it to his front pocket. I asked him, as a kid why and he told me pickpockets. I guess he doesn't do it anymore because about 10 years ago his wallet disappeared from his back pocket and suddenly he had several checking accounts and other things he didn't know about.

When your in a crowd of people someone is always looking for a way to profit from the anonimity a crowd provides. I live in the country and if you see a crowd around here something really serious happened. There isn't much anonimity, the same goes for small towns. Everybody pays attention to new people and vehicles.

I bet most of you city folks don't know all your neighbors, I know all mine for 10? square miles, if not farther. It makes a difference. I got to rambeling and forgot what we were talking about.

Oh ya....of course people have a fear of the unfamiliar, it's natural.

 

[Ryanxia]

I would mention the fact that in familiar territory we immediately recognize most things in our surroundings while in an unfamiliar area everything is something new to be observed/concerned about.

I feel much safer in an environment that if someone/thing pops out I'll recognize it quickly than in an unfamiliar area where anything might be out of place and I'm oblivious because it's all new to me.