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Probably because the suburbs, where many of us grew up, used to be a lot safer than the cities, and now the criminals live in the suburbs. I grew up in a Cleveland suburb (born in '82) and can tell you that as a kid and adolescent in the late 80s-90s, the suburbs were almost completely safe, with violent crime being an aberration. Only East Cleveland (a complete warzone) and parts of Cleveland Heights really had problems.
2012 is very very different. Suburbs like Maple Heights, Warrensville Heights, and Euclid are in terrible, catastrophic shape. To different degrees, Garfield Heights, Cleveland Heights (though it's always been 50/50 basically), Lakewood (growing section 8 community), either Parma or Parma Heights (I can't remember), South Euclid, either Bedford Heights or Bedford, and parts of the otherwise wealthy Shaker Heights are different for the worse, with crime on the rise.
Cleveland supposedly has gotten safer (it really hasn't, as the west-side has growing crime) simply because many of the thugs moved out to the suburbs, some of which are somewhat stable (like Lakewood), dying (South Euclid), on death's door (Garfield Heights), or virtually warzones (Maple Heights). These four city-suburbs were absolutely fine 20 years ago, so when people talk about Cleveland having less crime, well, they're just ignoring what's in front of them.
Most likely it is safer. The only reason it seems like more is because social media, cell phones, and cameras are EVERYWHERE to spread the news 24/7. Think about if we had all of that in the 80s and 90s to showcase the crime.
Most likely it is safer. The only reason it seems like more is because social media, cell phones, and cameras are EVERYWHERE to spread the news 24/7. Think about if we had all of that in the 80s and 90s to showcase the crime.
I agree. And omg I can't imagine living in the 80s or 90s with today's technology. No one in those decades would ever sleep at night.
Crime is lower, but I think that's not always the case. While MOST large cities have gotten safer, alot of "safe" suburbs that were once low-crime, and have risen in crime in the last 20 or so years. Also, I think most folks felt safer in those days because random violence probably wasn't as high back then as it is now. There was more inner-city violence in those days, but now days it seems like Mass shootings are way up. Sure there's not as many muggers, and drug-pushers on the corners, but there seems to be alot more crazy people nowadays who are armed and ready to let lose on women, children, and babies. And honestly, depending on where you live, the lower-crime statistics probably don't effect your neighborhood. If you live on the Southside of Chicago, or East Oakland, or New Orleans, and other places where the murder rate is still waaay higher than the national average, statistics just don't mean much vs daily reality. Cities as a whole have gone down in crime, but there are still certain neighborhoods and blocks that are still as violent as they've ever been. It's kinda a case in which the numbers don't lie, but they do kinda lie.
Having grown up in the "Wonder Years" (the 1960s) I recall hearing about crime but there wasn't 24/7 media chatter about it with "breaking news" banners running across the bottom of the TV screen. American society has become obsessed/fascinated with crime and violence in terms of media coverage, so even though the crime rate is lower we're more fixated which makes things seem worse.
I grew up in the 70's/80's in suburban DC area on the MD side of the beltway. I remember when there were only a hand full of channels and then we got cable in the 80's. But it was MTV and movies. That was it. News was on the networks at 5:00,9:00, and maybe 11:00. It showed a lot of local news and a small national/international segment and weather. We still got newspapers and most anything important was on the front page which was only so big. A murder on the other side of the country would not be heard about as anything like that would be of no concern to us. Abductions, rape, etc... were also no concern to us unless it happened near by. If there was a serial killer somewhere in the US it would be somewhere in the paper though and the news would give a blurb on it.
Now days we have news 24/7. Cable, satellite, internet. It's in your face, real time, constant. We're constantly bombarded by it. It seems every murder, abduction, rape, arson, etc.., etc... in the whole country are reported on every channel, every time you get on line, constantly. The only possible way not to hear about it is to turn it off.
I feel because of the 24/7 coverage people believe that they are unsafe everywhere when in reality they are perfectly fine. I still feel fine where I'm at. I don't ever worry about anything personally but I understand how people can feel paranoid when all they see on the constant news is doom and gloom. Even the regular programming promotes this. Watching TV I can see why one would feel that there is a stalker after every one of us just waiting for us to put our guard down.
I have spent considerable time in assorted Latin American country's and never want to see the day that we become like those places. With houses surrounded by 10 ft walls, bars on windows, broken bottles and/or barbed wire on the top of the walls, iron gates. Even in the countryside. I still have hope though. Just turn off the news.
people are ignorant when they are children. It's that simple. Back then, kids didn't talk about things like child molestation with their peers. come to find out 20 years later that I knew people who were molested. Kids just aren't aware of the world around them and how bad it can be.
People always romanticize the past. No matter what it is.
People forget that Michael Jordan missed jumpers and turned the ball over and made mistakes. They forget that Airline travel was expensive, noisy and less safe. Steam Trains were noisy, dirty and delays were just as comon then as they are now.
The point is, you forget the bad details when you fondly look back on the "good ol' days".
It's funny how we say this, because if society evolves even MORE in the future, and people become more civilized, and if crime goes down, our generation we'll be saying the somethings as older folks say. "Back in 2012, we were more civilized, and times were safer". Yeah right.
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