by Richard Florida, citylab, April 16, 2013
https://www.citylab.com/equity/2013/04/why-people-perceive-some-cities-safer-others/5234/
Simply put, metro areas where people feel less safe have higher rates of poverty, higher rates of unemployment, higher levels of homelessness, higher shares of population that are non-white, lower levels of education (measured as the share of adults who are college grads), more working-class economic structures, and higher levels of religiosity. Metros where people feel safer have higher levels of income and education, less unemployment, less homelessness, and more knowledge-based and creative economic structures. When all is said and done, the perception of safety seems to reflect the affluence, education levels, and economic circumstance of places at least as much, or perhaps more so, than the underlying reality of crime.
The perception of how safe an area is contributes more to how safe the individuals feel, regardless is that safety is backed up by facts. Possibly making an area feel less threatening would help with the levels of crime, since the stigma would be that the area is safe.
