Crime/Drug Use in Australia

[Tiffani]

Here in Melbourne crime is practically non-existent, at least in my part of town and for sure in the CBD. Of course, you can't be stupid (I dont' think there's anywhere in the world left where you can leave your house unlocked at night) but I don't feel anywhere near the fear of crime here that I felt while living in the UK (I was in Leeds and Newcastle). Oddly, even though there's far more gun crime in the US where I'm from than in the UK, I felt more unsafe in the UK because there always seemed to be kids hanging around harassing passersby and lots and lots of petty theft.

I got an "Oakleigh Safety Report" thing in my mailbox a few days ago, and in the month of March there were 7 crimes in my area (Oakleigh). Four of them were thefts from cars, there was one robbery and one burglary (dunno the difference there) and one other one that I can't remember but it wasn't anything serious.

Violent crime is almost unheard of but from time to time I hear about it on the news.

Drugs are everywhere, but it's not like there are crack dealers hanging outside the schools trying to push. The best you can do as far as that's concerned is continue a dialogue with your kids about their evils, but frankly, if they go through puberty and college, they'll probably experiment with a lot of things that you'd rather they didn't. It's part of life.