[everettp]

If your only examples are North America and China, it may feel like there is a direct tradeoff between safety and privacy. But that would be a false analysis: most Western nations have far lower rates of violent crime than the United States, without the need for omnipresent surveillance.

[theseadroid]

maybe. I've lived in Europe for a bit and it's a bit better but not to the point I feel safe everywhere during the night in cities(but at least I dont live in fear of getting hit by cars that much). And other than China I've mentioned I feel safe during night in Japan, Taiwan, or Singapore. Again I'm not sourcing any data here because it's just my personal experience of whether I'd feel safe in cities during night.

[zbrozek]

I'm often curious what makes someone feel safe or not. I've never felt unsafe wandering around (including in lots of "sketchy" places), but I suspect a lot of that is an accident of my genetics. I just don't look like an easy person to victimize.

[devdas]

From my perspective, a lot of that is simply busy areas. Areas with a lot of pepole moving around are safer in cities than areas without a lot of people.

In Asian cities, there is plenty of nightlife on the streets. In Europe, places outside the city centre seem to shut down after dinner.

[hakka-nyu-su]

The sense of social solidarity versus atomization plays a part, for me. Do I feel like my neighbors will look out for me or do I feel this is a "no snitching, mind your own business" culture?

[stolsvik]

Check out Scandinavia/Nordics..