I was thinking about how back in the early nineties, violent crime really was a big issue. Sure it was a real issue in some urban hellholes - violent crime genuinely did peak then in such places - but it was also an issue to everyone else. I'm not sure exactly why. The crime was a real issue, but it wasn't really an issue for the people most freaked out about it in the mainstream narrative (I'm sure people in crime-ridden neighborhoods had genuine reasons to be a bit freaked, but otherwise...). I remember a friend of mine telling me that her mother was traumatized by The Silence of the Lambs, particularly the scene in which someone helps the "it puts the lotion on its skin" guy and ends up getting kidnapped and skinned. She saw herself as a nice person who would help a random stranger, and this made her not want to help random strangers because SERIAL KILLERS.
Violent crime happens. It's real. Most of it isn't actually "stranger danger." There are far bigger risks in life (cough, driving, cough).
