the troubadour

Certainly not lies but it does appear to me that crime reporting does get a lot of newsprint and air time over other matters which seem to be little insight given into ever escalating prices in this city which of course may reflect in part on crime levels.

Police have their own agenda of course as they have been pushing for better conditions in recent times, while most folk would have no idea or much interest in what is going on in Perth after hours for example.

For better or worse Perth remains a rather easy place to avoid the nasties of life.
Folk tend to spend a lot of time cocooned indoors especially after dark, they drive everywhere so minimal contact with surroundings and besides shopping centres there isn't a lot of others about.
A little simplistic I know but you get my drift.

Sometimes though the outside world does intervene in the shape of a house breakin or a car tampered with but outside of that a pretty sheltered life can be pretty much how it is for many.

DadAgain

No - but a story every week about a robbery on the GC on TV makes it seem ubiquitous. If however, the truth is there are only 52 robberies in an entire year in a city of 1.5M people thats pretty damned impressive.

Has the robberies per 100K population increased or decreased over the last 2 decades? I'd hazard a guess that it might actually have gone DOWN thanks to the enormous population growth.

Any studies I've seen on the subject say that crime figures suggest crime (both here and the UK) seems to be decreasing whilst the REPORTING of crime in media increases enormously. The resultant effect? A Population who have unrealistic fears and perceptions about their safety.

Criminal activity does happen - but it always has - and actually it doesnt happen as much as you'd think from reading or watching the 'zOMG Media'.

brissybee

There's always a silver lining to these problems.

From a criminal perspective, the increasing incidence of violent crime takes the heat off petty non-violent criminals who simply want to pass their days breaking and entering without having to spend their lives looking over their shoulder for some bureaucrat ready to slap them with a prison sentence.

From a police perspective, there must be greater job satisfaction in bringing violent criminals to justice compared with that achieved slapping someone with a jay-walking fine.

moneypenny20

Exactly.

lancmanc

Sorry Northernbird but I think that the whole of WA has yet to reach 2 million, so I think 1.5 million for Perth is off the the mark, but you know what it's like here in Perth, it's a small goldfish bowl and the media blows everything sky high for sensationalism .
Saying that, the crime rate has risen, but so has the population, and the police have had their abilities to police curtailed by the bleeding hearts and PC brigade.
But on the whole, there is nowhere else better in Australia.

fish.01

Yes it is off the mark...Greater Perth is almost 1.7 million.

Dorothy

Perth 1.7 million. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth,_Western_Australia
2.3 million for the state http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Australia

northernbird

Like I said, I didn't google but I said roughly 1.5 million. What is 200,000 between friends

deb68

DEBS HUBBY HERE:
We had this same convo yesterday, it does look very nasty here lately, but that's just down to the fact that this place is so small in number terms really, and the bigger fact of not much going on creates a news media frenzy for this and anything really news worthy of late, back in the UK a stabbing in brum would not make the local news for central area might make the smalls in the middle of the local rag maybe, or usually gossip on the streets if some one knew the person.
Tonights biggy is the poor lass with the bomb on her, over in Sydney i think, not sure of location as i have had a real shitty day and the news was on in background. I am using this site tonight as a relief mechanism

Japonica

We're at record highs for murder rate in my old city in Canada, so Perth looks pretty sleepy in comparison. And I still wouldn't be afraid of walking around my neighborhood, either here or back there.

chris955

That's the thing, I would be happy to walk around day or night in most places here or the UK. There is little or no difference in the overall crime rate in either country although one is perceived by some to be much worse which is odd.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Population of Greater Manchester is about 2.7 million, West Midlands is about 2.2 million.... bit more than a couple of hundred thousand out then.

pomtastic

Definately more crime in Perth over the last few years but perhaps no more than any other City. Trouble is, not much happens here so every incident is reported, therefore it seems like more perhaps.

Weebie

Crime is not that bad in Perth. A lot of it is Alcohol fuelled and Gang related. Home Break ins are a problem but this is not a new thing, Perth has a reputation for this problem.

To say that the UK is more dangerous than Perth though is complete crap.

A bit of a drug war going on in Scarbrough atm. Saw about 4 gangs down on the strip last week.

renth

I drive through Scarbs twice a day and always see undesirables. Sometimes see some good looking prossies though...