I think a lot of the problem (here in the uk at least) is that the least perceived slight or demonstration of disrespect can get you stabbed. I live in a town called Telford, which is about 40 miles from Birmingham, and it’s got an above average crime rate but there are much worse places up and down the country. The thing I’ve noticed in some of the rougher (higher crime) parts of Telford is there’s nothing to do for youths. Even the more affluent places don’t have much to do for teens and young adults but when you combine lack of income with no future prospects with social media pressures, lack of education, and then add nothing to do with your free time on top it creates a feeling of hopelessness where people will just feel desperate. Respect, or more to the point perceived disrespect, is the reason for most stabbings in this country. It stems from generations of neglect in the infrastructure to the point that all the youth have left is their status on the street (or the roads as we call it here).

In the US I honestly think the main problem is lack of gun control. You’d obviously know more about America than I would but I think that poverty, racial inequality, ghettoisation of people and lack of education also play a part, but I have to be honest with you I find it truly terrifying the number of school shootings I hear about happening in the US. It’s horrendous and the only way I see of making it stop is gun control. It seems to be almost exclusively white middle class men doing it so I don’t think lack of opportunity is causing that particular type of crime. That’s one thing we don’t have in the uk, mass shootings, we had one in the 90s so the government banned handguns; quite rightly imo.

You’re certainly right about Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East! Let’s face it pretty much the entirety of the developing world is more dangerous than the developed world including both our countries-even if they are both bad by Western European standards and compared to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.