Personal anecdata is most definitely an issue, and a very hard one to solve. For example - the greater LA metro area has roughly 19 million people (as of 2019

Personal anecdata is most definitely an issue, and a very hard one to solve. For example - the greater LA metro area has roughly 19 million people (as of 2019 believe it's higher now) 19 million people is the equivalent of the populations of the 13 lowest population states. Including for example, South Dakota. The last time I looked into this, roughly a year ago (and at 2019 numbers) the entire state of South Dakota has the same amount of crime as Los Angeles. However, the entire state of South Dakota is roughly 1/20th the population of Los Angeles. We also have decades of data showing that people who grew up in or have lived large metropolises are at roughly 20%-25% greater disposition to severe mental illness such as schizophrenia. Simply for living in that environment. So, that being said - I think somewhere like Los Angeles is doing pretty damn good for itself. It's an undeniably slightly crazy place to be living or growing up in, and their general crime levels are only at the level of a place with 1/20th of it's population, that is much less dense. In my eyes, it seems like a place with less population density would be less prone to crime. Most people don't take any amount of time to become aware of information like this though... thus we get nowhere in solving issues.