Crime in Sandton, South Africa

I am not sure if we are not just so used to high levels of crime that we underestimate the danger in other cities. I have walked at night in cities like London, Paris, Munich, Prague, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Rome and Florence and felt safer than unlocking and going into my own yard at night. It could be a case of ignorance is bliss, but I have never been accosted or threatened in those cities while walking about. Here I have been accosted while ten metres from my husband sitting in our motor vehicle, to check if the road was clear. Ten members of my immediate family have either been assaulted in their own homes behind locked gates or hijacked in their driveways or attacked at their place of work. Some of these assaults were life threatening and in all cases the attackers were armed.