I can't speak for the States because 1.) I've never been there and 2.) that's a huge-ass territory on its own; making generalizations about certain things "State-side" is often as laughable as when our resident Ewok starts saying how everything is "in Europe" based on something that's gotten his ass-fur in a knot this time in the UK or in France. I have, however, travelled reasonably extensively in Europe and I have to say I've never been worried about getting robbed at gun-point. London, Milan, Paris, Rome, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Limerick, Dublin... not a single time. And with the exception of Copenhagen, I've been out and about in every one of those cities on foot after dark (Copenhagen being the exception because I believe I was six or seven at the time).
Heck, the only two times I have been unnerved I can pretty much name off the top of my head:
1.) Taking a bad turn in Rome on our first night there and accidentally walking into a bad neighbourhood, where we (my folks and I) feared being robbed. But other than lack of street lights, there was nothing.
2.) Coming home from a party in Limerick, where while waiting for the taxi I ended up mouthing back to some asshole who drove by and yelled to me and a friend that we were gay. I called him back an asshole, the car stopped and started backing up... I thought "Oh f***, nice going, now you're gonna get beaten up". But the taxi arrived just then and we got away. I was afraid of getting beaten, but never for a second did I consider the guy might be packing heat. Hell, even the bad part of the city was called "Stab City".
Just my tidbits of anecdotes. I will tell you how I found the States in comparison if I ever manage to get there.[DOUBLEPOST=1344519576][/DOUBLEPOST]Also, there was the time when me and some fellow international students were in Dublin and a guy came across us saying "Hey, wanna buy some weed?". But that was in broad daylight, and frankly speaking more hilarious than threatening.
One of the Americans in our group, a young man from DC, actually said that made him feel like home...