Is Sheffield a "DANGEROUS CITY"?

[Cyclone 10]

After being branded a dangerous city by a spanish language school manager in the star,im after you vews on this topic.Having read and hearing lots about violent behavour in the city is it now a DANGEROUS CITY ?

 

Statistically it's one of the safest in the country, although you're a bit more likely to be burgled here.

[SaveUK 10]

Copters' hovering above us in Greystones as we speak - 4:40 in the afternoon and somethings happening - decide for yourself!!!

 

Police man only had 20 mins to get to Greggs so had to take the Chopper

 

As for the question... Sheffield is tame compared to london or the north east hense where i stayed here

 

that and you all talk Fun-E

[Bolehill 10]

What I found a bit disturbing was that the headteacher of the Heritage Park Special School (where the Spanish kids took refuge) was quoted as saying that the Spanish students who were attacked were "nice young middle class teenagers whose families had paid a lot of money for them to be there".

 

If they had been nice young working class teenagers whose families had accessed government grants for them to be there, would the attack have been any more acceptable?

[depoix 11]

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/Spanish-school-kids-attacked-by.4301926.jp

SHEFFIELD was today branded a "dangerous city" after 48 Spanish teenagers were forced to flee when they were set upon by a gang of yobs close to the city centre.

The youngsters, all aged from 13 to 17, were attacked with stones, bricks and plastic bottles and fled along Norfolk Park Road, seeking sanctuary at Heritage Park Special School.

 

Paramedics were called to treat a number of minor injuries and police began a search to track down the gang.

...............

says it all really.......despite the council still saying the opposite, this happened,which shows it is dangerous in sheffield

[Incubus 10]

I don't think it is, relatively speaking.

 

compared to some of the hell holes in the middle east I suppose its not, however as a place in the UK it is fast becoming a place not to visit.

[rubydazzler 11]

I grew up in Sheffield and I still visit my family and friends often and go into town, [,,,] I have been a taxi driver in all 3 cities over the last 20 years, and my home town is the only one I would not do again, I still go out in all 3 towns and Liverpool is the best in atmosphere and safety [...]

So you think that Sheffield's worse than Manchester and Liverpool for taxi driving? and less safe than Liverpool for going out? That's not good, is it? We must be getting a lot worse a lot faster

 

I personally never worry much about being out and about anywhere, here or London. But then, I lead a charmed life!

[scargill 10]

says it all really.......despite the council still saying the opposite, this happened,which shows it is dangerous in sheffield

 

I twisted my ankle tripping over a curb, then the following week I skinned my arm on a wall, yes it is a dangerous city, especially when it is spinning around your head.

[tonynmorris 10]

Having lived in rotherham (Town) since birth, but lived in other places i.e. Bognor Regis and Manchester. I can say that Manchester is rough in most places, yobbish and the rougher end have attitudes. I lived in Clayton, East Manchester 5 and half years and was a Community Development Worker in this time. Yes I was non-judgemental but at times founds challenging views as a yorkshire man in mancunian-land. Moss Side like Clayton has media raised stories including gun and drug crime, however Clayton was quieter. Sheffield I have known all my life and like Barnsley has social problems, I found that if people had insentives to find employment and be able to claim full housing benefit they would have more aspirations to get out there. Sheffield does have problems and cities, agencies and organisations are ascerting problems. So what do you think..........

[Paulmat 10]

Seems like Sheffield & South Yorks. is still one of the safest places for gun crime out of all the highly populated areas...

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7511664.stm

[Fareast 10]

The question was, ' Is Sheffield a dangerous city ? ' , not, ' Is Sheffield a dangerous city compared to to the Isle of Skye or Manchester ? ' This is not being pedantic because there is an important difference.

 

Let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that Sheffield, in 5 years time, gets much worse and ' overtakes ' Manchester. Then, Manchester, however bad that had become, could say, " Oh, well, at least we're not as bad as Sheffield ". Or, the worst area for crime in the U.K. can say, " Oh well, at least this is not as bad as Los Angeles.......Rio.......etc.....And so the whole crazy roundabout of complacancy goes on for ever. It's just one of the reasons that recent governments [ Tory & Labour ] have not bothered taking radical action in the past 3 decades.

 

Surely the most sensible thing to do is to compare things with how good or bad things are to how they were in the past ? If people are going hungry in X country, it seems pointless to keep saying, " Ah, but people are starving in Y country. " They should be saying, " Ten years ago people were well fed in X country. What's gone wrong ? " Ditto, with crime ; It's nice to be optimistic about life, I agree.......but there comes a point when a problem has to be tackled and I think we reached that point years ago in both Sheffield and the rest of the U.K.

[Cyclone 10]

The question was, ' Is Sheffield a dangerous city ? ' , not, ' Is Sheffield a dangerous city compared to to the Isle of Skye or Manchester ? ' This is not being pedantic because there is an important difference.

The question is meaningless in it's raw state, it either needs qualifying by comparison, or qualifying in some absolute way.

 

Let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that Sheffield, in 5 years time, gets much worse and ' overtakes ' Manchester. Then, Manchester, however bad that had become, could say, " Oh, well, at least we're not as bad as Sheffield ". Or, the worst area for crime in the U.K. can say, " Oh well, at least this is not as bad as Los Angeles.......Rio.......etc.....And so the whole crazy roundabout of complacancy goes on for ever. It's just one of the reasons that recent governments [ Tory & Labour ] have not bothered taking radical action in the past 3 decades.

 

Surely the most sensible thing to do is to compare things with how good or bad things are to how they were in the past ?

Maybe, if we had accurate measurements, yes. But I don't think we do.

 

If people are going hungry in X country, it seems pointless to keep saying, " Ah, but people are starving in Y country. " They should be saying, " Ten years ago people were well fed in X country. What's gone wrong ? " Ditto, with crime ; It's nice to be optimistic about life, I agree.......but there comes a point when a problem has to be tackled and I think we reached that point years ago in both Sheffield and the rest of the U.K.

Crime measurements change, hunger measurements don't, the analogy is invalid.

[Fareast 10]

Cyclone-----Yes, the question was rather difficult to deal with in the form in which it was presented ; that's why I said I think it's more valid to compare 'present' to 'past', rather than comparing laterally, so to speak.

I'm not sure if statistics don't change or can't be changed when referring to hunger. What is, or was, considered an adequate diet in one place or at one time can surely differ to what is considered adequate, poor or good in another time or place. A New Yorker might well think that the diet of a Delhi resident was practically on the starvation level but the Delhi resident might be happy that his food was better than 10 years ago.

The method of recording crime does change in some ways as time goes on. Does that mean that we can, more or less, ignore crime statistics as useless or misleading ? If so, it means we can't discuss crime as regards statistics at all ! The only other way is by anecdotal evidence.

If we accept any kind of statistical evidence and / or anecdotal evidence, in both cases, it seems to suggest that crime, particularly violent crime, is getting worse in Sheffield. However, I suppose there is a slight chance that there were hundreds of shootings and stabbings and murders in Sheffield in the '50's and '60's but everybody kept quiet about it !! If that's true, then things HAVE got better !