Safest City
 

How would you rank the following cities regarding crime and safety:

Rome
Dublin
Paris
London

All of those will have areas that aren't quite as safe as elsewhere, so it's hard to generalize.

I can't speak to Dublin or London, but Rome tops MY list for crime.

Never had a problem in any of them (live in Dublin, have lived in London, have visited Paris and Rome). I'd find Dublin the safest, but that's because I live here. It's a funny question, why do you ask (if it's 'which should I visit' I certainly wouldn't your decisions based on the relative safety).

And I certainly wouldn't base my decision on a bunch of totally subjective opinions compounded by the fact that different people tend to define the word "safety" in many different ways.

Not to mention that "safe" for inhabitants doesn't necissarily translate to "safe" for tourists... What do you want to hear ? Safety is such a diverse factor it doesn't really matter much...after all statistics is based on averages, but if you get mugged you generally don't care that you might be the only oen that YEAR that got mugged, since you just did.... You can never go directly from large-number averages down to single instances. Statistics doesn't work that way :(

Cobos

Exactly what do you mean by safety? Terrorism? Violent street crime? Having your pocket picked? Being ogled or having your bottom pinched?

And will the info be used to decide where to go on vacation - probably not the best barometer - unless you were comparing Afganistan or the middle east to a deserted tropical island.

Frank:

I am originally from Dublin and have been to the other three many times. Each one has its safe and unsafe parts. There are places in Dublin that I would not dream of walking through, even during the day. For example, I have no idea why a visitor would want to stay near Gardiner Street, as it is in the middle of a very suspect area. Its been suspect since the 19th century (when it was one of the largest red-light districts in Europe - the Monto).

Statistically, you are probably less likely to be murdered in Dublin, but that is just statistics! Petty crime is high, and I have never seen so many house alarms nor been so frequently warned about having my bag snatched. However, I know where to go and where NOT to go. I am not so well informed about the others as the natives are, so I am blissfully ignorant and therefore not as careful as I should be. I probably feel safer in Paris than anywhere else. I feel very safe in the S. Ken/Chelsea areas of London.

It all has to do with carefully choosing the area you stay in. For example, I never stay near a major train station, because in almost every city the train stations attract the criminals. I am always prepared to pay more for an hotel in a good area. I avoid hotels that are in areas that are described as "up and coming", "colourful", "off the tourist route" as this usually means they are in slummy areas that are gradually being gentrified.

Like the other posters, I am interested to understand what you mean by the question.

Regards ..Ger

Homicide rate per a population of one hundred thousand for the 1998-2000 period:

Rome 1.24
Dublin 2.19
Paris 2.85
London 2.38

Sidney 1.49
New York 8.77
Washington 45.79


Prison population rate per a population of 100.000 in the 1998-2000 period:

Italy 94
Ireland 76
France 80
England and Wales 124

Australia 113
USA 700


Violent crime recorded by the Police in the year 2000:

Italy: 74.136
Ireland: 3312
France: 243.166
England and Wales: 733.374

Domestic burglary recorded by the Police in 2000

Italy: 207.317
Ireland: 13.317
France: 186.492
England and Wales: 402.984


Theft of motor vehicle recorded by the Police in 2000:

Italy: 243.890
Ireland: 15.964
France: 401.057
England and Wales: 338.796


Sources: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/hosb502.pdf


P.S. For what I can recall, the total population of Italy and France are similar (around 57 milions each), England and Wales population should be more or less 50 milions and Ireland's is of 3 milions and a half .

This reinforces some info I got on my last trip to Ireland. I saw lots of publicity about the huge increase in crime and the need to safeguard your belongngs etc - and asked my cab driver - who had also driven a cab in New York. What he said was - there is so little crime in Ireland that any incident causes a major brouhaha - and that comparing crime in Dublin to New York (probably a bad example since it is the safest large city in the US) is laughable.