TurnRightThenLeft promoted this question.
Do you girls feel as safe as say ten years ago?
Where would you walk and where would you not walk?
Do you feel pornography might have changed mens attitudes towards you in recent years?
Brisbane cycleways have been in the news recently as a place for muggers.
Is Brisbane more or less safe than other big cities?
How does Sydney and Melbourne fare?

Gibo, my grandmother walked at night armed with a hatpin and a starters pistol for protection back in the 30's (Sydney). I get the impression that you try to mke out that things have only recently gone downhill. I dont believe that this is the case - its just that there are more girls out on their own (which wouldnt have been allowed in the past) AND attacks are now muhc more likely to be reported. The human race has always been capable of great evil, given the opportunity.

Gibo, you seem determined to promote the idea that the world is going downhill making claim after claim to that effect. When your claims are rebutted you don't answer with evidence or retraction. On another thread you tried to suggest that there was very little child abuse back in the glory days of the 50's and I provided some links to material regarding child abuse in that period. You have admitted elsewhere that you don't want to learn more prefering to escape to the life of a recluse.

I have the impression that much of your church life is about filling your mind with that which is not noble, that which is wrong, that which is impure, that which is unlovely, that which should be despised. That which is shoddy and of little worth.

You are convinced the world is bad and try desperately to look for evidence of that corruption ignoring all of the great things being done and the progress made. You put faith in the most unlikely conspiracy theories and hide from truth. None of that is good for you either from a human perspective or for your life as a christian.

A word from the bible you might take some time with to measure that which you fill your mind and your posts with -

Philippians 4:8 (New International Version)
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

R0bert

Dear Gibo,

I go for my evening run in a park in suburban Melbourne every night and I've been doing it for years without any mishaps.

As a matter of fact, people say hello, smile, or make a comment like,
"Good for you!" So its all positive. Often I meet the same people, out for their evening walk, others are also running - so I don't feel threatened in any way. There's plenty of people around as it's a popular park in the area.

Admittedly I'm in a family suburb - not an inner city complex. It's not an industrial area, and there's no 'night-life' activity around.
I might think twice about doing my run alone - under different circumstances. But as things stand - I feel very safe.

Gibo, I don't deny that there are a handful of dodgy places in Australia, where women probably shouldn't go walking alone.
I wouldn't recommend walking alone down King's cross, and there was a series of incidents on a Brisbane bikeway.
Aside from those spots, and a few other inner city precincts where it's unadvisable to walk alone in the wee hours of the morning, everywhere throughout the country's pretty damn safe.

As other posters pointed out - bad things have happened throughout history. You've picked a few incidents and made out like we should all be living in fear, but quite frankly, that would be the case in any period, at any time.

Truth is, every day, millions of Australians are walking freely where they want, without any issues.
Now and then, somebody will have a problem. It's sad. But that's always been the case, and the idea that 'sex crims are taking over' as you mentioned in another thread, is ludicrous.

It's just that today, the media is more encompassing, and the nature of the media, is to focus on these few incidents, which are the exception, not the rule.

So garn, get outside for an afternoon. Go enjoy some sun in the park and maybe even throw a frisbee.

I lived near the Cross (in Darlinghurst) for years in my 20s and never felt scared (or not properly) going too and from my apartment. I've lived in three capital cities in Australia, one huge city in Asia, and one small town in Europe. While I've had some hairy moments, I've never felt truly in danger.

Occasionally, drunk men like to scare young women. But the problem is far more likely to be a bit of persistent sleaziness. Kind but blunt usually worked for me. I've always found that if you genuinely ask a stranger for help, they help. In the Cross, if I thought that some young hipster my age was following me or hanging around, I'd go talk to the roughest biker tattoo parlour guys I could find. They were always the most chivalrous.

I feel much safer generally now than I used to, but mostly that's because I'm pushing 40 now and I long ago settled down and coupled up. I don't stumble home in the early hours any more. My husband wouldn't let me.

I accept, though, that there are women just like me to whom bad things happened. But I concur with most others here - most of the time, most people are fine. Danger is usually much closer to home.

Well... that was only a small cross section.
No ladies yet on whether they thought porn might have changed the hearts of the guys.

"on whether they thought porn might have changed the hearts of the guys"

Gibo people perceptions of the impacts of porn will have a lot more to do with their worldview. Extremist feminists and fundies object to porn because of preconceived beliefs and evidence does not come into it. Others will have varying views depending on their upbringing and general attitudes.

I don't think that there is conclusive evidence on the topic yet (very hard to isolate porn from other social factors) but the preliminary stuff I've seen relates to internet takeup and a drop in sexual assaults committed by teenage boys compared to places with lower internet takeups. Maybe relieving those tensions has some value.

I suspect that what people do with porn has a lot to do with existing attitudes and only a minimal role in creating attitudes.

R0bert

RObert.
I think porn really needs a major government observation.
The fact that it hasnt already seems to be that people are avoiding it.
No one, or no incident, has yet triggered it. Thus no major research.
I would think that major city newspapers probably have a link to its publishing so they dont write major investigations into it.
I often wondered about the sleazy Daily Telegraph in Sydney. Do big newspapers have a link?

Gibo, I'm not much into government intervention but I can see your point.

If it is shown that easier access to porn reduces the rates of sexual assault then perhaps there is value in the government moving to ensure that porn is more accessable to those who may not currently have access to it.

By the way have you noticed that the rise in a prevelance lot of negative social issues seems to have been at around the same time as the growth of large penticostal churches. Obviously those churches are the cause of so many of the social ills which surround us. Time to shut them all down. Unfortunately a number of pollies seem to have links to them so it's unlikely that much will be done.

R0bert

Gibo:

By the same token, if you calculate the number of pirates existing in our oceans over the last 200 years, you see that as the number of pirates decreased, ocean temperatures have risen.

Therefore, we can combat global warming by increasing the number of pirates in the ocean...

There's no actual evidence to show that porn is dangerous, what little evidence there is tends toward the opposite.

"No ladies yet on whether they thought porn might have changed the hearts of the guys.". Well here's one.

"Changed the hearts of guys..." from what? To what? Since when? Hell's teeth, porn has been around since people began. Haven't you ever seen any of the hideous kiddy-porn from the Victorian era? (You know, the era when people were all going to church every Sunday in droves?) Or Seventeenth century porn? Or been to Pompei? Or to Roman or Greek excavations? Or Indian temples? Or South American ruins?

Even if you haven't seen them in situ, surely you must have seen them in books, or National Geographic, or someplace? If porn were to "change the hearts of the guys" it did so centuries ago.

I agree wholeheartedly with every word Robert has written here (and with Foxy and Vanilla et al)and the idea of feeling unsafe in Australian streets is, to me, quite laughable.

It is interesting to note not many people have actually answered the questions put forward.
While statistics for crime are on the increase for sexually violent related crimes, most people are blissfully unaware of what goes on in their own neighbourhood. Domestic violence issues are huge and a major contributing factor is not pornography but alcohol. Under current legislation too, police are required to attend all domestic related incidents regardless of whether it is violent or just a verbal argument. This ties up valuable resources and in the majority of cases, females refuse to accept police action because the female does not want their partner to get in trouble with the law. That is another issue.
Now, back on the subject, there is crap on our streets everywhere. It is amazing how much there really is and how little of it comes to the attention of those who reside in those areas. As with everything, if you take the right precautions, you will be reasonably safe. Don't walk around with both earphone speakers in your ears because you won't hear the footsteps of someone coming up behind you, etc. simple things.
I've blurted on long enough and not really covered the issue in depth but I had something to say so I said it.

wassup, the question originally put forward is probably not directly being answered because of a perception that Gibo is playing a game with it.

He thinks the world is going downhill and I think that he wants to use a subjective measure to prove it. A feeling of safety does not necessarily relate to the actual levels of safety.

If he wants to make a case for that issue the points that need to be established are
- Is the level of reported sexual assault committed outside the home at greater levels in the past?
- Are victims of sexual assault more likely to report sexual assault than in the past and if so what role does that play in the levels of reported sexual assault?
- What are the factors which drive sexual assault? Gibo has proposed increased acess to porn as a culprit. I've pointed out that indications are that access to porn may in fact reduce sexual assaults for some groupings (teenage boys). The jury is still out on that. If there is an increase in the levels of sexual assaults it may also be due to other factors such as the growth of the penticostal movement or perhaps because of the lessening numbers of pirates on the high sea's (I'm being tongue in cheek with that).
- Who is committing the sexual assaults on strangers? The Brisbane bikeway assaults appear to have been committed by a very small number of people (perhaps one) but accounted for a high number of incidents and a large public awareness of the issue. A small number of deranged individuals committing a large number of offences does not constitute a general breakdown in society.
- What severity is involved in the incidents?

I'll leave the DV discussion to another place because as you point out it is another issue.

R0bert

R0bert, you have asked some very interesting questions indeed. Discussions with certain people within certain professions certainly leads one to believe the amount of sexual assault related crime being reported is indeed on the increase. The reason for this seems to be speculation as no actual study has been conducted, that I know of anyway. Possible reasons being discussed include, an increase in the amount of agencies available to guide and counsel victims, an increased level of understanding and a better attitude by law enforcement personnel (although they are by no means experts, psychiatrists, social workers or counselors, their words, not mine). While certain areas may be considered hotspots, being a certain location where there is a higher than average amount of crime(Brogden 2003), it is up to law enforcement personnel to be pro-active in solving the reason why the crime is occurring in that area. This is known as problem orientated policing and could be as simple as increasing the level of lighting in a given location. I am not familiar with the bike track in Brisbane so I am unaware if this is a suitable solution.
A study on the effect of pornography may be benificial but the results would certainly depend on who was funding such a study and how does one police how much pornography people are permitted to be exposed to (no pun intended). There would indeed be many disappointed people on a Saturday night with their high speed internet connection if they were forbidden to look at porn.

wassup, the brisbane bike path attacks were/are a relatively large number of attacks (38+) on women which occured on various bike and walking paths around the northside of Brisbane.

Look for "Operation Echo Shine" to find info on the police investigation.

A list of media reports is at
http://www.mako.org.au/ausnews567.html

My understanding is that they were at the low end of the scale in terms of sexual assault (mostly groping) but must have been terrifying for those attacked and are likely to have lead to longer term issues for many.

One forum type post in regard to this is at http://ninemsn.birth.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=20519 - a popup video comes on as well which looks like advertising.

I've not heard anymore about the attacks for some time so I'm wondering if they have stopped.

This was a situation where women right across Brisbane were feeling less safe on our bike and walking tracks than they previously did resulting from what was probably one individuals efforts rather than a general social downturn.

R0bert

It seems to me that poor old Gibo feels unsafe anywhere outside his imaginary bubble that he's told us about.

He has to stay there because out here in the real world there's all sorts of demons, communists, pornographers, invaders and flying saucers just waiting to get him and all the other 'committed Christians'.

Especially the "girls".

This was supposed to be a girls comment.
Why are you guys here.
And many, if not all, pro-porners.