[rbosinger]

There are more people around. More cars. Where I live, there's about 1000x more needles than when I grew up. Way more crazy people roaming around. Maybe statistically they aren't causing any problems, but they sure harass me enough. Especially when it comes to "playing in the woods". The woods around town are the worst place now. We used to find camps and places where teenagers would party here and there but now when I walk in the woods (unregulated, non-protected "parks", or outskirts of real parks) there's people camping out and smoking, drinking, doing whatever. Both my hometown and where I live now are like this. It's not my imagination. My parents see the same thing. I don't care if the statistics say it's better.

[mlyle]

> It's not my imagination. My parents see the same thing. I don't care if the statistics say it's better.

Kind of strange, though, isn't it? We live in a safer time than any before (have regressed slightly in the past few years), but many, many people have an intrinsic gut reaction that things are getting worse.

"Our sires' age was worse than our grandsires'. We, their sons, are more worthless than they; so in our turn we shall give the world a progeny yet more corrupt." - Horace, ~20BC

[Sodman]

You should check out "Angels of our better nature" by Steven Pinker - it's a fascinating book about the decline of violence, both over the course of human history, and recently.

The local woods by you may indeed be worse than it was during your childhood, but overall as a society we are doing better.