Notts_bloke

I agree. I think the 'doom and gloom' culture of media reporting in the UK creates a lot of negativity.

I like Australia for being more positive. Although sometimes it can be a more 'head in the sand' approach.

YankeemovingAbroad

What kind of crime are we speaking of? Are these acts the petty crime variety or are we talking violent crimes such as stabbings,rapes,break ins ,car jackings?

cricket1again

I think crime in the UK is likely to be petty theft and break ins more than anything. I base this on living here in Oz and the more serious crime which happens but seems to accepted as normal.
For example, (I was shocked) our best friends came for dinner last night. Great people, very decent, kind and genuine but they've been on the receiving end of some unpleasant deeds.
They were relaying a particular incident which included describing one of the people as having previously been a madam in a brothel who had a daughter who worked as a prostitute but then she was shot and killed in a raid, etc, etc, etc.

MY GOD! In England, the worst thing that was ever included in any dinner conversation about crime was how our neighbours retractable stereo had been nicked from her car because she forgot to take it indoors.
So yes, I think crime in the UK is a bit different to the US style crime that goes on here.

YankeemovingAbroad

The States has plenty of crime petty and violent.I thought the uk had a knife stabbing problem as well as a high rate of rape incidents?I could be wrong.I am surprise to hear Australia has a gun attack problem.Are there many news reports of shootings and violent acts in Australia?

cricket1again

Well i'm on the Gold Coast and yes, shootings and killings seem to be rife here. They've made a new TV series based on CSI and Miami CSI called The Spit about Surfers Paradise. It's pretty gruesome and apparantly it's true to life.

Someone did post a useful link on stats and it showed that the US and Australia were higher in crime than the UK. Rape and sexual offences are higher here. Gun crime is still low in the UK because the police don't carry guns.

davejules&aoife

Hi
I dont live in middlesbrough i live just up the road in Newcastle but work in Middlesbrough regular. Middlesbrough is called Smogland because of heavy industry which puts a lot of people off. Just south of Middlesborugh you have Teesdale which is country towns and villages which is very scenic and really nice to live. (15-30 minutes). We did a spreadsheet to help us save money and keep track of our spending so these are the figures.

Fixed Costs
Mortgage Halifax 350

House Insurance Royal Sun Alliance 30.44
Nursery fees 3 days 387

Water Northumbria 16.73
TV License 11.75
Councill tax Blyth Valley 163

Gas Supply Atlantic 92
Electric Supply Atlantic 45
Telephone Talk Talk 28
Life Cover Norwich Union 13.12

Dentist 19
Sky TV 30
Julie Mobile Fresh 20
Aoife Savings 100
Piano Lessons 0
Total 1306.04

Non fixed costs
Food 300
Diesel 150
Going Out 100
Lunches 80
Football
Clothing&Misc 100

Living costs 730

2036.04

I am self employed and my wife works too. Mortgage was based on £80k mortgage. Shopping from Tesco/Aldi so could be cheaper. Diesel now down to 0.98 per litre from 1.32 per litre. Hope that helps

backagen

The police in the UK don't carry guns because gun crime in the UK is still low!

The police are not responsible for causing crime. They're the ones that have to deal with it!

kporte

gun crime is low in the uk because of gun control. there are lots of armed coppers in the uk, just not visible.
statistics anywhere are unreliable as they are all compiled with some subtle figure massaging.
you will find most developed nations have similar crime figures. much more pertinent is where within the nation in question you actually move to.
sadly, nowhere is truly immune.
I was fortunate to never see real crime in the uk or here so far.

Jules Europe

We are mostly talking about break ins and car theft of which both Nottingham and Middlesborough usually come out high on any survey. The other major crimes are violent burglaries and knife crime. Knife crime is a big problem but it is largely restricted to cities and to the younger population, most of the victims tend to be young people of late teens or early twenties so that gives you some idea of whose involved.

Crime in the UK is like most places, if you live in an affluent area the chances are, that you will never see any of it just read about it happening elsewhere.

YankeemovingAbroad

Some real interesting points of view.I had no idea Australia was such a wild place. Maybe gun rights are apart of the Australian constitution similar to here in the States.The right to own a gun creates imo a cowboy mentality like back in the old wild wild west days.Here in florida the republican(no we haven't gotten rid of all of them,but we're working on it)state government has passed a law that allows people the right to carry guns on their person any where in public establishments and the right to shoot attackers on public & private property.The previous law only allowed gun owners to defend them self by shooting attackers who come onto your residential property.Now you can shoot people at the mall

YankeemovingAbroad

Jules

Hi buddy

How is the crime situation in spain?Are there certain crimes more common in spain and are they isolated to just the large cities?

Jules Europe

In my opinion the crime situation in Spain is nowhere near to the level of say the crime levels in the UK. In the major cities though, there is crime like any other city and for many years violent crime was quite rare in comparison to other european countries, this though was largely due to the Franco regime. But over the last twenty years or so violent crime has been on the rise and it is now reaching levels where it is something of a concern here. The press will have you believe that it is all committed by immigrants etc but a lot is actually committed by Spaniards.

Typical crimes here normally include high levels of break ins especially in areas with high foreign residency ie on the costas, the routine pick-pocketing/handbag snatching of tourists and of course the very Spanish crime of lets beat up your wife A very macho Spanish past-time that still goes on especially in the summer months, it seems like old habits die hard......Some women though, are actually fighting back these days What is the world coming to

There is also a lot of organized crime here mostly controlled by Russian and South American gangs etc

YankeemovingAbroad

I've heard that Spanish society is very macho in mentality. "Men are expected to control their women".Is there a blind eye turned to men who abuse their women in spain? Are women taken very serious in spain compared to other western countries that have laws for equal treatment of women?

Jules,on a different subject,you mentioned Franco's continued left over influence in Spain. Coming out of a difficult past that saw Spain under the thumb of a dictator's rule,how do most Spaniards adjust/view to ethnic diversity? Do you see skinheads in Spain attacking tourist who are people of color? I've heard of such attacks in the costa del sol a few years back. Is the media unfairly painting all of spain because of the actions of spanish soccer fans against black soccer players?

If you ask the average African American about their knowledge of current day Spain, even if they have never been there, many have heard of the treatment of black soccer players who either play for spanish teams or those who compete in Spain against spanish clubs.Are Spanish soccer fans' lack of tolerance a true reflection of Spanish society?

Jules Europe

My comment about Spaniards beating their women to control them, was largely an exageration anyway I still imagine though, that the figures for this would be higher in latin countries like Spain and Italy etc than they would be in the UK for example, because this macho pysche does still exist in parts of Spain etc. In fact Spanish society has evolved considerably in this respect and it is quite common to find women bank managers, politicians, professionals, business owners, in fact they will do whatever a man can do work wise and some actually do it better. The modern Spanish household will normally have both partners working and sharing the chores so no there is no control over women whatsoever, in fact the modern spanish family will function very similiar to its British counterpart. As for turning a blind eye on any abuse of women.........Well certainly not as the law will support them.

Well attitudes to ethnic diversity vary considerably here in Spain and the racial insults directed toward people like Lewis Hamilton and the visiting black British players, when they played a friendly here a couple of years ago, along with the comments of then Spanish national team manager Luis Aragones about Thierry Henry etc were disgraceful and an embarrasment to me and the country. As for football fans insulting visiting black players well I think you`ll find that goes on in most countries throughout Europe. You have to remember something inmportant that most racism here, is based on ignorance rather than any racial hatred like you would get in the UK or USA etc. You have to remember than Spain up until recently was largely a one race society with little outside ethnicity exception being temporary workers etc therefore many people here largely had no contact with black people and any negative attitudes were based on pure ignorance. A good example of this is when I talked to my ex English wife about our school days, in my school it was practically all Spanish along with 2 Chinese brothers and a Colombian girl and that was it. In her school in the UK she told me that there were at least 20 different nationalites!!! So I think this says it all in terms of racial attitudes and what is accepted and what isn`t. Racially motivated attacks towards tourists are largely uncommon but there are skinheads similiar to what you would find in most european countries. As for tolerance well the average Spaniard is very tolerant toward most people regardless of who they are but some of the ignorant and bigoted types will be less so and sadly they are numerous.

cricket1again

That's what I meant. Because police don't carry guns, it helps keep the peace. They have always said that if they were to carry weapons, gun crime would soar because all the criminals would carry them too.
I know the UK police have the right attitude on this issue. I also think the UK police are far more courteous and tolerant than the morons here.