Reply to reality check please - husband who sometimes forgets to lock the front door at night

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Between anecdata from people who had bad things happen to them once and news programs trying to sell ads by emphasizing crime and mayhem, it's no wonder people feel scared all the time. 
"Lock your doors, the Honduran migrant caravan is coming for you!"
"I knew a guy who's brother got robbed by a Honduran once. You really should lock your doors. And get a gun!"[/quote]

I'm honestly confused by your post. Are you saying that locking your doors at night is equivalent to being a dirtbag Trump supporter? [/quote]

Nope. Just trying to say that[b] I think everyone is a lot more scared by the world than the real risks justify.[/b] The relentless and obviously cynical media coverage of this caravan is a somewhat extreme example of the dynamic that contributes to this fear. Crime is at a fairly low ebb historically, but to hear people talk, you'd think the good old days were safer and we live in Troubled Times. Kids are probably safer than ever but people won't let them play unattended for fear that they'll get abducted or molested.

I don't really have a beef with locking doors. It doesn't take a lot of effort, it doesn't hurt anything, and it could possibly help even if the chances of a home invasion or burglary while you're home at night with a dog is really, really low. It sounds like OP was frustrated after the latest incident and has now cooled down and is looking into a technological solution. So that's all good. But I think her underlying fear would be much reduced if the local news didn't stoke fears about crime just because that gets people to buy papers and stay tuned through the ads. [/quote]

The thing about risk is it is not distributed equally across all 320 million of us.  It varies wildly based on location, down to the neighborhood level.  And it's more complicated than inner city vs. suburbs vs. rural.  Rather than listen to someone taking statistics out of context from the BJS, the wise thing to do for your own risk assessment is to look at your local crime report and while you're at it, look at the sex offender registry for your neighborhood. Then take appropriate action based on what you think is an acceptable trade off of effort vs. risk.  Risk assessment is probability vs. severity for the initial risk.  Add in whatever steps you want to take to mitigate that risk then you should be left with a lower residual risk.  There is no upside to blithely dismissing a risk with low probability but high severity because you believe the world is all sunshine and unicorn farts. [/quote]

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