City or Suburbs, Which is Safer?

At one time everyone lived in the city, that’s all there was. Then suburban growth began and those who had money left the city for the suburbs. City inhabitants left back were often poor and where there is poor there seems to be crime.

There are many obvious differences between suburbia and city life including noise, congestion and crime. City kids are usually a little more street wise and suburban kids less so.

My parents grew up in the city and their parent’s grew up in the city. When I was young we lived in the city.

We moved to the “Leave It to Beaver” suburbs when I attended the first grade and I went through high-school a suburbanite. And because my parents were so young, (they were both 19 when I was born) I pretty much spent every weekend with my grandparents in the city. Growing up I kind of lived a “double life”. I had the idyllic upbringing of suburban life with the street savvy exposure of the city.

Over the years I’ve noticed lots of change in suburbia. Big change has occurred partly because of the Internet. With instant information and social media, the lines between city and suburb have been significantly blurred.

But what has obliterated those lines is crime. Crime now happens in suburbia just like it happens in the city. Statistically crime in the city is still higher than in suburbia, but the types of crimes, frequency and the violent nature of crimes are sometimes as bad in the suburbs as they are in the city.

Violence, burglaries, car theft, robberies and murder happen everywhere. And home invasions and the brutality that come with them are happening a lot in the suburbs.

In a Connecticut suburb Dr. William A. Petit Jr. was almost beaten to death while his wife and daughters, ages 17 and 11, were killed and the house was set on fire.

In a suburb in New Hampshire during a home invasion a mother is hacked to death with a machete and her daughter barley survives a similar attack.

What this all means is if you are an old school thinker and have grown up thinking “It can’t happen to me. Not here, we live in the burbs, that stuff happens in the city””…then you need to pay attention. If you live in the suburbs and neglect home security, not locking doors or thinking you don’t need a home security system is naïve.

Living in the suburbs no longer means you are insulated from crime. “Leave It To Beaver” is off the air.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing Home Invasions on Montel Williams.