I personally live in one of the most dangerous cities in Europe: Stockholm.
You think it is strange? Well, Stockholm has in all its recorded history
been a violent city. For instance, today Los Angeles has a murder rate of
about 10.8 murders on every 100 000 inhabitants, Stockholm has 10.2!
Stockholm is the only metropolitan area in Sweden though, so the average
crime rate is comparatively low. The violence in Swedish society is also
very much concentrated on specific segments of society. Most often those
segments that don't receive much media coverage. "Bum A and Bum B met at Bum
A's ratty apartement and started drinking, then Bum B killed Bum A in
drunken stupor", is the average Swedish murder, nothing sassy to write
about. But the violence is very much present in Stockholm, and its expanding
outside the usual segments of society.
Europe often points fingers at the US for its crime rate, while conveniently
forgetting its often higher (or at least comparable) crime rates. The US is
often more heterogenous that the European countries (that have been heavily
centralized) so comparisions between European countries and the US are often
not that good.
Sincerely,
Waldemar
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