Neighbourhood anxiety

[jalapeno1234]

I'm moving into a new flat with one of my male friends in around 5 days. Im happy as we are close and will probably end up walking to and from events etc when we go out but its dawned on me that after being in tight, secure student accommodation that Im gonna be in one of the roughest areas in the city and my anxiety is triggering the "what ifs" like when hes away and if I have to get a job and walk back from the city centre which is a half hours walk. I dont wanna go back to my parents house due to the environment there so Im finally stepping out in the world at age 26 but I havent even thought about the dangers....how can I keep calm?

[WiredIncorrectly]

I'm moving into a new flat with one of my male friends in around 5 days. Im happy as we are close and will probably end up walking to and from events etc when we go out but its dawned on me that after being in tight, secure student accommodation that Im gonna be in one of the roughest areas in the city and my anxiety is triggering the "what ifs" like when hes away and if I have to get a job and walk back from the city centre which is a half hours walk. I dont wanna go back to my parents house due to the environment there so Im finally stepping out in the world at age 26 but I havent even thought about the dangers....how can I keep calm?

I live in what you might call a rough area. It's only a problem if you're involved in the area with drugs, gangs, trouble makers etc. I've lived in many rough areas. 5 years ago I was paying nearly 2k per month rent to live in the center of Birmingham and literally behind me was a rough council estate. I've never once been robbed or had any problems of that nature.

Keep yourself to yourself. Don't flaunt or advertise anything of value. You'll be fine :)

[ankietyjoe]

I agree with Wired.

I've lived in both rough AND splendid areas and the amount of trouble you witness or experience is irrelevant. In some respects when you live IN the rough area, you're less likely to be involved in anything unless you specifically go out and look for it.

[BlueIris]

Just to agree with the above; I live in a notably rough area myself, and while I'm careful not to upset the neighbours, the more dangerous people are way too deeply into their own conflicts to want to mess with random peaceable strangers.

[lebonvin]

Rough area don't necessarily mean violent. Usually just a lot of poverty. I've never lived in a not rough area and as someone said already nobody will bother you unless you bother them first. In my neighborhood there are occasional shootings but it's always concerning people who are known to each other. From what I heard you don't got guns in the UK so you'll be fine

[BlueIris]

Lebonvin, guns are illegal in the UK but we still have some gun crime - we've had a few shootings in my city, some quite close to home.

That said, as you say, they're almost always amongst people who are known to one another.

[.Poppy.]

I agree with what the others have said.

Are you able to carry something like pepper spray to help yourself feel a bit safer, just in case?

[Lencoboy]

I know this thread is from last year (2019) but I happen to agree with a lot of those who have responded, in the sense that most people on the receiving end of violent crimes usually tend to be known to the perpetrators, and random attacks on strangers are supposedly much less commonplace than we often think.

Often the media can amplify the perceived risks, especially in this age of endless 24/7 rolling news channels with wall-to-wall coverage of specific events, coupled with the ever-growing prevalence and influence of social media.

And (moral) panics about dodgy council estates and the like have been a thing ever since I can remember, as back in the late 80s and early 90s, teenage gang fights between certain estates in my area were a fairly common staple of our local rag, which they strangely hardly ever seem to mention these days, yet the fear still seems worse than ever, despite overall crime rates in my area actually being much lower now than 25-30 years ago when they seemed to be at their peak, even though my town in general is not a high crime area.

[BlueIris]

From experience, robbers don't tend to s**t where they eat.

[Lencoboy]

I think another significant factor that hasn't helped over the years is that quite a few of the council estates that were built in the 60s and 70s were often poorly designed (and built), especially those of the infamous 'Radburn' layout, where the fronts of the properties usually face onto pedestrian walkways and the rears face onto vehicular access roads, sometimes with remotely sited communal parking areas that are often not overlooked by houses and poorly lit at night, and inadvertently liable to car crime. Also dark underpasses have been quite common in such developments, which have proved to be magnets for vandals, graffitists and muggers. Most properties were also much easier to break into back then as most windows and doors were much less sturdy than today. Private estates were also affected by the latter back in the day, where as nowadays almost all new housing is designed and built to the police-approved 'Secured By Design' specs.

Also in blocks of flats the (notorious) communal areas such as entrance lobbies, lifts, stairwells, landings, corridors, etc often used to be open to all and sundry where as nowadays I'm sure the vast majority have special door entry systems where only residents and authorised persons can access the blocks.

[Lolalee1]

Crims can get into any place regardless of Secured by Design,modern technology sure ain’t going to stop them,they are tech savvy these days and a hell of a lot smarter than you or I
I watched a young kid of 15 and an old time crim last year at the police academy break into a home,take away shop and a Private hotel and honestly it was a piece of piss for them.

[Lencoboy]

Crims can get into any place regardless of Secured by Design,modern technology sure ain’t going to stop them,they are tech savvy these days and a hell of a lot smarter than you or I
I watched a young kid of 15 and an old time crim last year at the police academy break into a home,take away shop and a Private hotel and honestly it was a piece of piss for them.

Perhaps you're correct in the sense that die-hard 'organised' criminals might be much less deterred by modern-day security measures, where as the more randomised, 'spur-of-the-moment' crimes generally seem to be less common now than when I was a youngster.

Perhaps (as I'm sure we've spoke before on a similar subject in another thread on here), there may be variables between crime in Australia (where you live) and crime here in England, so probably difficult to compare both countries like-for-like.