I lived in a village which became a fairly large commuter-belt-sprawl pseudo-town while I lived there. (Pop jumped from 800 when my parents moved there to c.7000 when we moved away; for the area that's a big place.)
In 15 years there was one suicide (unfortunately in the house exactly opposite ours, my mum was one of the people who raised the alarm having not seen Mr C for a couple of days), a couple of drunk-driving incidents, and a murder took place a month or two after we left the village and turned out to be a crime passionel (although it took several years to prove it). The village policeman was part-time and not overworked. Burglary didn't happen, drugs were either non-existent or well-managed, there was pretty much no vandalism. One of the two primary schools did burn down but although arson was initially suspected it turned out to be an electrical fault. Shoplifting was probably the only regular criminal activity taking place. My parents both came to the village from West London and were paranoid about reading the local paper, and my dad was in constant liaison with the local police because he ran the rifle club and was part of the process when gun licences were issued. I think we would have heard about crime if it was there.
As for crime in Oxford - I am always reading about muggings that take place (sometimes in daylight) just around the corner from here - three or four a week in a bad week. Haven't seen any evidence of it myself or met anyone who has been mugged there. When you read the reports closely, however, 9 out of 10 of the victims turn out to be foreign exchange students with those stupid 'I belong to a language school, please mug me because I probably speak no English and have lots of cash' backpacks. Which is a case of opportunist crime rather than desperation on the part of the mugger, I suspect.
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Date: 2005-01-19 02:47 pm (UTC)In 15 years there was one suicide (unfortunately in the house exactly opposite ours, my mum was one of the people who raised the alarm having not seen Mr C for a couple of days), a couple of drunk-driving incidents, and a murder took place a month or two after we left the village and turned out to be a crime passionel (although it took several years to prove it). The village policeman was part-time and not overworked. Burglary didn't happen, drugs were either non-existent or well-managed, there was pretty much no vandalism. One of the two primary schools did burn down but although arson was initially suspected it turned out to be an electrical fault. Shoplifting was probably the only regular criminal activity taking place. My parents both came to the village from West London and were paranoid about reading the local paper, and my dad was in constant liaison with the local police because he ran the rifle club and was part of the process when gun licences were issued. I think we would have heard about crime if it was there.
As for crime in Oxford - I am always reading about muggings that take place (sometimes in daylight) just around the corner from here - three or four a week in a bad week. Haven't seen any evidence of it myself or met anyone who has been mugged there. When you read the reports closely, however, 9 out of 10 of the victims turn out to be foreign exchange students with those stupid 'I belong to a language school, please mug me because I probably speak no English and have lots of cash' backpacks. Which is a case of opportunist crime rather than desperation on the part of the mugger, I suspect.