Forums > Areas > Jalisco's Lake Chapala Region

juan david

Jul 20, 2003, 2:07 PM

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safe in the streets

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Am in the old home town of Ottawa this summer and the headline in the local rag yesterday commented on 750 reported street crimes this past year...defined as swarmings, muggings and assaults. No wonder lakeside feels safe to us. Kinda puts the mustard bandit capers in perspective, and gives me a snappy comeback to friends here who ask about personal safety in Mexico. Anyway, kinda big numbers for a sleepy government town of 800.000 souls. What do you think? Is personal crime most influenced by population density or by local culture?
" let sleeping dogs lie"

beverleywood

Jul 20, 2003, 7:09 PM

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Re: [ian] safe in the streets

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Is personal crime most influenced by population density or by local culture?

Very interesting question. I think local culture. I live in Vancouver and worked for years in the lower East side. Personal crime, I believe, is more rampant in Vancouver than any other Canadian city... and I would have to attribute that to the drug culture that exists here (I'm talking crack and heroin, not pot). Recently, the police have begun cracking down, but we'll see. I wouldn't park my car on East Hastings in broad daylight yet, though.

Gary Anderson

Jul 21, 2003, 11:10 AM

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Re: [beverleywood] safe in the streets

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Indeed an interesting question. I suspect that, as with most complex issues, the answer lies somewhere in between, or in a combination of the two with lots of other factors thrown in.

Some years ago, B. F. Skinner, a psychologist, published a famous (in some circles) study about the effects of population density on the behavior of rats. To oversimplify somewhat, Skinner found that population densities beyond a certain point, all else equal, resulted in loss of appetite and sex drive and substantially more aggressive behavior. He called it the "behavioral sink." I remember reading about that study for a psych class while an undergrad and thinking, "No wonder there are so many a**holes in New York City." And no, you don't have to remind me that people aren't rats. At least those who aren't lawyers - or politicians or energy company executuves from Texas.

One must also realize that population density influences "local culture" in myriad very subtle ways, far too many to go into here. Suffrice to say that a lot of people who know a lot more about it than I do have puzzled over the causes of violent crime for a lot of years, and there are probably as many theories as there are people to espouse them.
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