I think the truth is somewhere between your guys&#x27; position.  There is a very real statistical difference between the crime rates between neighborhoods.  But its also true that the actual incident rate is much exaggerated by the media and perceptions of neighborhood differences are greater than reality.<p>One thing that is for sure, young black teens&#x2F;men have a much, much more dangerous time of it, regardless of neighborhood than anyone else, and that is tragic.<p>And while we are adding anecdotes to the thread, I&#x27;ve lived in a &quot;bad&quot; neighborhood on Chicago&#x27;s South Side for over a decade and I&#x27;ve never had a single violent incident (property crime has occurred).  In that same span I was attacked in Lincoln Park and Streeterville, and had an attempted bicycle incident near McCormick Place.<p>I routinely walk in front of crowds of young men hanging on corners (its daily for me as I pass by a couple of schools) and have never had an incident (and I in fact know many of those young men).  But there are also neighborhoods less than a mile away where I would not be comfortable doing that.