I'm relatively confident that residents of NYC, and similar big cities, report fewer of the crimes that actually happen than people elsewhere. But that's the sort of claim from my life-experience, including plenty of time as a child in the NY suburbs, and most of my adult life in San Francisco, that may not have handy official stats to back it up.

I suspect a survey of residents, asking questions like, "have you had anything stolen that you did not file a police report about?", would reveal relative urban versus suburban or rural propensity-to-report trends here better than official crime stats – but I don't know of such a data series.

It's good to feel confident about things. But data is even nicer.

I've never had to file a police report for theft in NYC (where I've lived for 20+ years), because I've never had anything stolen from me. Unless you count the kid who, in third grade, stole my Pokemon cartridge. But the response to that involved schoolyard justice.

How many years have you spent in NYC as an independent adult?

Well, I'm in my 20s, so I suspect that whatever number I give you is not going to be very useful.

But "independent adult" also doesn't mean much. I was riding the subway alone by the time I was 7 or 8, and didn't have anything resembling a curfew.