I don't really care about those crimes because I don't own valuable things. I could recover easily if someone stole my car, which is worth less than $1,000.

I do care about rape, assault, and murder. I don't ever want to be caught up in that. So I was very glad to learn that though my small town has an above average murder rate, it's between people who don't associate with me.

Anecdotally, I wonder how true this is. I'm two degrees separated from two people who were murdered--one was a colleague of my father (killer never caught, suspected they knew each other, though), one a friend of my sister (also never caught, though less likely a friend/acquaintance due to her age). Surely my experience isn't that unique?? If so, wow.

I don't think it is unique if you are using two degrees of separation.

A) A friend's sister who got addicted to crack and was murdered by a guy her bf pissed off. He was caught.

B) One of my previous bosses had a cousin murdered in a domestic terrorist attack.

I think the world has about 3.5 degrees of separation. Probably 2 degrees is more than half the country?