No doubt that the media can drive things and or make a situation seem a lot worse than it actually is. Whether you live in the United States, Australia, Europe, etc. take some modest precautions coupled with common sense and you probably do not have to worry about violence finding you at home. Where I live is an affluent suburban area and yet there is some minor crime all around us. (petty thievery) Mostly it happens when someone leaves a car door open, garage open, etc. Next thing you know an opportunistic criminal has stolen some thing. Does not happen very often but it does happen. In a city of roughly two million there certainly is a criminal element. I would agree with Tgace, Kman, DropBear that if you are not in the drug business and or have poor choice in associates your chance of having some thing horrible happen definitely is reduced. By taking precautions of having an alarm system, good locks, scary but beautiful dog, martial training, firearm training, etc. I have just stacked the deck in my favor. Am I a target sure. However, criminals will see my house and think it is a hard target and move along.
Now if you live in a country that has really low crime rates, low break in's etc. still take some prudent precautions. Kman mentioned above that he has dogs. If you have good sized dogs that is a
big precaution and most criminals will just go some place else. If you live in an apartment make sure you have good locks and lock your door, have an alarm if you can, train in a martial system so you have some skill sets, etc. Understand the crime rates and what is happening in your area and take prudent precautions.
In the US the likelihood that your home, apartment, etc. will be invaded is small unless you are as Tgace mentioned in the game or make poor choices with your associates. Yet, even though it is small, what have you done to reduce the odds? Even more, what have you done to stack the odds in your favor should some thing happen? The likelihood of having to use my skills is small at this point.
As I am aging and moving into a group that is preyed upon more that could change. Yet, I train and take precautions so that I present a harder target for the criminal element.
Throughout the course of my life I have lived in the rural countryside on a farm, in cities like Flint, Saginaw, Lansing and of course the inner city of Detroit. Back out in the middle of nowhere which was beautiful and now in a major metropolitan city of Las Vegas. Flint and Detroit are real eye opening places to live. There is certainly danger there and yet they are really cool places to live. You just have to know what and where to avoid. What is surprising though to some people is that at least in the US some recent crime statistics actually bear out that there is not actually a lot of differences between crime out in the country and crime in the city. This was recently reiterated by Michael Bane on the BestDefense show on the outdoor channel. (Though injury leading to death is shown to be higher in the country which can and does skew the statistic) Unfortunately, in the US crime happens everywhere and at close or similar to the same rates. I do have a theory on this and would be happy to share it!
My advice would be to have a worst case scenario plan and hope you never have to use it. Yet, have a plan because if some thing "god forbid" does happen you will not freeze up and be able to take care of business.
These links show how crime has fallen in the cities of United States and the current trend:
Study Shows That Cities Are Safer Than Rural Areas Despite Crime TIME.com
City crime country crime The Berkeley Blog
Here is the 2015 Numbeo crime index. Interesting on the chart you do not want a high number for crime index. However for safety index you do want a higher number. Interesting to see where countries line up.
Crime Index by Country 2015
