NY Times travel article details Paris tourist crime.
www.nytimes.com/2003/24/travel/24rep.html?8td
Is this a realistic report?

Unfortunately, that page expired. When was the article? (BTW I notice there's a tie-in to Fodors when you go to Travel Section links.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/24/travel/24rep.html

this might be what GSteed was trying to post.

Is Paris Burning? This is the title of a good book about it...Of course is about ww2, the Germans and Hitler..

I will paraphrase the article:
The article states that a woman who moved to Paris from US has had per purse or cellphone stolen or "almost stolen" 5 times.
Her father came to visit in March, and while riding the RER from CDG to town, "lost" one of his THREE suitcases.
It mentions the most common crimes are pickpocketing or thefts of cellphones from users not paying attention.
A study released in January noted that the Ile-de-France has the 2nd highest crime rate in France.
The first five months of this year has seen the overall number of crimes drip by 6% from the same period of 2002.
The article reassures us that guidebooks and travel organizations rank Paris as being among the safest destinations, as long as visitors protect their valuables.
The Interior Minister, N. Sarkozy, has doubled the number of police officers patrolling the Metro, and increased the number on the suburban rail lines.
Part of the increase in crime is attributed to the changes in urban areas due to immigration, unemployment, and pockets of poverty.
The goal to decrease the crime rate is 33 % by the end of 2004.

I think I remember reading that article way back when. From the summary above, I'd say it sounds pretty true, but there's nothing that alarming in there to me. I live in a big city, though, so don't find it shocking that the most common crimes would be pickpockets, etc or that the Ile de France (containing the largest city in France and perhaps the most lower-income suburbs, in terms of number of persons) has the highest crime rate in France. The anecdotal account by that woman doesn't mean much to mean as I don't pay too much attention to anecdotes in journalism articles as a way to assess, probably because of my education and occupation. I know this is a common technique for journalism and it does make for more interesting articles for reading in newspapers than real empircal studies.

I go to Paris fairly frequently and have never once had a problem and I go everywhere at all times and ride public transportation. I just don't do stupid things or leave my valuables anywhere that someone can pickpocket them.