The fear is not unfounded of course, but I think there are two mechanisms at work here: 1. in the US the media blows these things up much more than in Europe. I

The fear is not unfounded of course, but I think there are two mechanisms at work here: 1. in the US the media blows these things up much more than in Europe. In fact there is a lot more attention for crime in general, while traffic accidents get much less attention. 2. Similar robberies do take place in Europe, but I think Europeans tend to shrug them off more, assuming there's only a very small chance it will happen to them. Also, for some reason, whenever something bad happens, the US seems to respond with bigger countermeasures, more stringent laws and heftier punishments. Europeans are amazed when they read that children are sometimes threatened with tens of years of jailtime for relatively small incidents.